NEW DELHI, Mar 28: Press Council of India (PCI) Chairman Justice Markandey Katju today wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee and made an appeal to pardon actor Sanjay Dutt and 1993 Mumbai blasts case convict Zaibunnisa. In identical letters to Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Katju said that even though Dutt has not requested for his pardon, he is entitled to make such an appeal. “I therefore appeal to you to pardon Sanjay Dutt under Article 72 of the Constitution (President’s power to grant pardon). I mention that Article 72 does not state who should send the appeal. Hence even if Sanjay Dutt has not sent an appeal I am entitled to send such an appeal,” he said. Katju cited several reasons for granting pardon to Dutt. “He (Dutt) has already undergone 18 months imprisonment. After his release on bail after undergoing 18 months imprisonment it took him five or six years to restore his damaged career. During this five or six years he was often ostracised by people as he had the brand of a terrorist on himself,” he wrote. The PCI Chairman also sought pardon for Zaibunnisa Anwar Kazi’s five-year imprisonment by the apex court in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. “She is an old widow of 70 years of age. She has been operated for a tumour in her kidney and she has to go for regular check-ups. Her legs have developed swelling so she has to be kept on a salt less diet. She can hardly walk or talk. I do not think that in her frail health she will survive five years in jail,” he said. Katju noted that she has already spent nine months in the jail, adding, “Even on the merits of her case, I am of the opinion that she deserves pardon.” Dutt, 53, was ordered by the Supreme Court on March 21 to return to jail to complete a five-year sentence. The Apex Court had upheld the death sentence of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, a key conspirator with Dawood Ibrahim in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, and ordered that Dutt return to jail to serve three-and-a-half years sentence for possessing illegal arms. (PTI)
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