NEW DELHI - Sanjay Dutt has asked India’s top court for more time before going back to jail for possessing arms supplied by plotters of the deadly 1993 Mumbai blasts, his lawyer said Monday. India’s Supreme Court last month struck down Dutt’s appeal over his conviction and said he must return to prison by April 18, but the 53-year-old has asked for another six months of freedom to complete his filming obligations.
“Please defer my surrender by 180 days as I have work commitments,” his defence counsel Harish Salve, citing a petition filed on Monday, told AFP. The lawyer said the plea was likely to come up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The top court last month sentenced him to five years for possessing firearms supplied by gangland bosses who staged the string of bombings that killed 257 people. The muscular and tattooed Dutt had already served 18 months of his sentence but was released on bail while his case was appealed.