Indian court puts off sentencing Bollywood star Dutt
25 May 2007 11:14:34 GMT Source: Reuters
(Recasts with court decision) MUMBAI, May 25 (Reuters) - An Indian court put off on Friday sentencing top Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, convicted of buying illegal weapons from gangsters involved in India's worst bombings. The court said it would summon Dutt again soon. Indian newspapers have said that the court was waiting for probation reports of some convicts including Dutt. Dutt, 47, was cleared of conspiracy in the serial bombings of 1993 in Mumbai that killed 257 people, but found guilty of illegally possessing an AK-56 rifle and a pistol. Dutt's crime carries a maximum jail term of 10 years. His lawyers have urged that the actor, who found fame playing gangsters and anti-heroes, be set free for his good behaviour during his bail. Separately, the court jailed eight people for between five and 10 years for abetting the bombings, taking the number of those punished so far to 36, including five policemen. Dutt is the most high-profile among 100 people, mostly Muslims, found guilty in the bombings trial, one of the world's longest-running court cases, which ended last year. The tall, muscular actor, son of a Hindu actor father and Muslim actor mother, has been on bail since 1995 after spending over a year in prison during initial investigations into the blast. Dutt's latest film, "Shootout at Lokhandwala" about gang wars in Mumbai, opened on Friday, in which he plays a sharp-shooting police officer. The 1993 Mumbai attacks were ordered by India's most wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim, a Muslim, to avenge the razing of a 16th-century mosque by Hindu zealots in 1992, police say.
