Sanjay Dutt gets bail

NEW DELHI—The Supreme Court granted bail on Tuesday to actor Sanjay Dutt, serving a six-year jail sentence for taking guns from gangsters involved in the country’s worst bombings.
The actor was convicted for taking an AK-56 rifle and a pistol from gangsters linked to the bombings in which 257 people were killed in Mumbai in 1993. Dutt, who is lodged in a jail in Pune, had challenged the conviction late last month and sought bail until the petition was heard.
He is expected to be out of jail for a while as the appeal could take months to be heard and ruled on by a judicial system burdened by millions of cases. “It could take at least a couple of years I would imagine,” his lawyer Karan Singh told.
Dutt, 48, was among 100 people found guilty by a special Mumbai court, which sentenced 12 of them to death and 20 to life in prison while handing varied jail terms and fines to the rest. Dutt’s lawyers said it would still be a couple of days before he could go home. Three others convicted along with him in the arms case were also given bail.
“There are court and jail formalities to be completed which could take two days,” Singh said. Dutt’s appeal says his conviction by a special anti-terrorism court was based on a confession he later retracted. It said the confession was obtained under duress.—Agencies