AP News, August 21st, 2007
Hundreds of Sanjay Dutt's fans were disappointed Tuesday by a delay in his release from prison in western India due to formalities.
On Monday, India's top Court ordered temporary release of the Bollywood actor, citing a technicality weeks after he was sentenced to six years in prison for illegal possession of weapons.
By midday Tuesday, nearly 500 people had converged on Pune's Yerwada prison _ taking time off from work and skipping school _ in the hope of catching a glimpse of Dutt.
"What's going on? It's been 36 hours since the Supreme Court (in New Delhi) freed him," said Latif Shaikh, who closed his perfume shop in Mumbai and drove 100 miles southeast to Pune.
Prison authorities in Pune said they had not yet received the court order and that formalities for Dutt's release were likely to be taken up Wednesday.
Software engineer Rohit Kasare was among those upset by the delay.
"I've been coming here for the past two days. I feel bad he has not been let out, but I'll come back tomorrow," he said.
Mahesh Pardi, a 14-year-old student, said he and a friend had camped outside the prison Monday night and planned to stay until Dutt was released. "I'm staying here till he gets out. I bunked school to be here," he said.
Dutt and five others, convicted in the same case linked to the Mumbai 1993 blasts, were granted bail because they had not been given a copy of their sentences by the Mumbai court that convicted them.
All will have to return to prison once they receive copies of the sentence.
Dutt was to be released after the Supreme Court order was submitted and certified before a Mumbai court _ a process that could take time, said a jail official on condition of anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The actor was sentenced July 31 and convicted in November for illegally possessing three automatic rifles and a pistol supplied by men involved in the 1993 Mumbai blasts. He was acquitted of more serious terrorism charges relating to the bombings. His lawyers are appealing the sentence in the Supreme Court.
Dutt has already served 18 months in jail after his 1994 arrest and had been out on bail for 12 years.
The series of bombings on March 12, 1993, killed 257 people and were believed to have been acts of revenge for the demolition of a 16th-century mosque by Hindu nationalists in northern India in 1992. After the demolition, religious riots erupted, leaving more than 800 dead, most of them Muslims.
