Though Sanjay Dutt still faces his Arms Act conviction for possessing illegal arms, at least the terror accusations against him are now definitely dropped. The CBI decided not to challenge Dutt’s TADA acquittal which means that this verdict is now legally valid and Sanjay Dutt is finally cleared of all terror charges.
Dutt was first acquitted of the terror charge in November of 2006. While handing down the verdict against Dutt, Designated TADA Judge Kode declared that the CBI had not been able to prove the terror accusations against Dutt and that he, Kode, had not found Sanjay Dutt to be a terrorist. However, he found Dutt guilty of illegal possession of arms and sentenced him on July 31, 2007 to six years in jail under the Arms Act. Dutt has challenged his conviction and is currently out on bail.
Though he still has to await the Supreme Court’s decision about his appeal, Sanjay Dutt can now heave a sigh of relieve as at least he can be sure that there will be no appeal against his TADA acquittal. The CBI has challenged 50 of the 123 verdicts in the 1993 bomb blast case, but as both the Attorney General and the Solicitor General had opined that there was no basis for an appeal against Dutt’s acquittal from TADA charges, his name doesn’t figure on the list of challenges presented by the CBI now, three years after the verdicts have been handed out.
