The self-inculpatory confession of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt that he possessed fire arms led to his conviction and award of five years jail term by the Supreme Court which termed his statement under TADA as a "substantive" piece of evidence.
The son of famous Bollywood couple late Sunil Dutt and Nargis who has already been in jail for 18 months, will now have to surrender within four weeks to undergo the remaining three-and-half years prison term.
"The appellant not only implicates himself in the above said statement but also amongst others the appellant Yusuf Nulwalla. The abovesaid confession has been duly recorded by PW-193 (a police officer) who has proved the compliance with the provisions of law while recording the confession.
"The abovesaid confession is a substantive piece of evidence and it has been held in a series of judgements that the confession can be the sole basis of conviction, if recorded in accordance with the provisions of TADA," the court said.
A bench of justices P Sathashivam and B S Chauhan refused to accept the plea that Dutt retracted from from confessional statement.
"The retraction statement was not made at the first available opportunity. After the recording of his confession, within 10 days, the accused was released on bail by the High Court, and the accused remained free for a considerable period of time.
"In fact, the judgement delivered by the Constitution Bench on 09.09.1994 also noted down that the said confession of the accused remained un-retracted. The retractions were made many months after the recording of the confession," it said.
