New Delhi: A day after actor Sanjay Dutt was granted four weeks time to surrender, three other convicts including his friend Yusuf Mohsin Nulwalla also got a month’s time by the Supreme Court to turn themselves in to serve their remaining sentence in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
Granting relief to Abdul Razak Memon, Altaf Ali Sayed and Nulwalla, a bench of justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan said that no further time will be given to anyone to surrender on any ground.
The bench also agreed to hear the plea of three other convicts, including Zaibunissa, seeking similar relief on their health ground.
As the deadline to surrender comes to an end today, the bench agreed to give an urgent hearing to their plea and listed the matter for hearing at 2 pm.
The bench, however, refused to grant relief to another convict Yusuf Khan, who had sought extension of time to surrender till his review petition is decided by the Supreme Court, saying that relief cannot be granted on this ground.
The apex court had on March 21 upheld the sentence of five years imprisonment of Yusuf Khan.
The court had also upheld the jail term of life imprisonment, 10 years and five years respectively of Memon, Sayed and Nulwalla. Dutt, 53, had sought six months time to surrender to complete his seven movies in which producers have invested over Rs 278 crore.
While giving four weeks to Dutt to surrender on humanitarian grounds, the apex court had made it clear that no further extension will be granted to him.
The apex court had on April 16 dismissed the pleas of three convicts, Zaibunnisa Anwar Kazi (70), Issaq Mohd Hajwane (76) and Shariff Abdul Gafoor Parker (88) alias Dadabhai, for extension of time to surrender on the ground that their clemency pleas are pending before the President.
The three convicts had also sought time to surrender to undergo their remaining jail term on medical grounds.
The bench, however, had said that once a person is asked to surrender he has to surrender and only after surrendering, he can make such plea.
The writ petitions filed by them had pleaded that they should not be asked to surrender till the representation made by former Supreme Court judge and Press Council of India chief Markandey Katju on their behalf is decided by the President.
The apex court had on March 21 upheld the TADA court’s verdict of five-year jail term to Zaibunnisa who is suffering from cancer. It had also enhanced to life imprisonment the five-year jail term awarded to Hajwane by the trial court.
He spent five years in prison during the trial in the case. The life sentence was awarded by the TADA court to Parker was upheld by the apex court. He has already served over 14 years in jail. The Mumbai serial blasts on March 12, 1993 had claimed 257 lives and injured over 700. (PTI)