Police clear Dutt's furlough extension, jail authorities’ approval awaited

Sanjay Dutt could be granted an extension once again for a period of 14 days. The Mumbai police have cleared the extension. Dutt now needs a clearance from the Yerawada Central Prison authorities.

Actor Sanjay Dutt, who was released on furlough on December 24, could be granted an extension once again for a period of 14 days.

Coming-out-of-Pune-s-Yerwada-jail-after-taking-fourteen-days-parole-Sanjay-Dutt-said-he-had-lost-18-kilos-since-the-day-he-went-behind-the-bars--Photo-by-Prodip-Guha-Hindustan-Times

The Mumbai police have cleared the extension. Dutt now needs a clearance from the Yerawada Central Prison authorities. Dutt has been out of jail after he was granted furlough to celebrate Christmas and New Year with his family. He then sought an extension on medical grounds.

An application asking for clearance to extend Dutt’s furlough was sent to the Mumbai police via email on Friday. The mandatory No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the local police station was emailed to jail authorities in the evening.

Dattatray Bargude, senior police inspector at Khar police station said, “We received the application in the afternoon via email, and the assistant commissioner of police cleared Dutt’s furlough extension.”

It is now for the jail authorities to decide if they want to extend Dutt’s furlough or not, said Bargude.

Meanwhile, minister of state for home Ram Shinde has now gone back on his previous statement by claiming he never had said actor Sanjay Dutt can stay out of jail in case of a failure in taking a decision over his application for an extension to his furlough.

Shinde was quoted as saying on Thursday that there was lack of coordination between the prison authorities and Mumbai police and in such a case Dutt need not go back to Yerwada jail.

On Friday, however, said the right of sanction to the furlough and its extension lies with prison officials and the cases are not referred to the home department. He claimed he never said Dutt can stay out of jail if the prison department had failed to take a decision on the extension of the application. He also added the claim by Dutt’s advocate was uncalled for.

“If he is saying that Dutt returned to Mumbai on the basis of my statement, he is wrong,” he said.