Jailed Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt will walk out a free man in first week of March from the Yeravada Central Jail, official sources said on Tuesday.

Dutt was convicted for his role in the March 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. He has, however, been out of jail several times on furlough.

In September, Maharashtra Governor CV Rao rejected a pardon plea, but Dutt's lawyers claimed he never applied for any.


In a joint statement issued, advocates Hitesh Jain and Subhash Jadhav said that the news about the governor turning down the actor's plea was "purely based on the application made by Justice Markandey Katju seeking pardon for Dutt and other convicts'.


The actor is on furlough since August 27 for his daughter's medical problems. After his arrest in 1996, Dutt spent 18 months in jail before getting bail.

Dutt was found guilty in 2013 of acquiring illegal weapons from those involved in the deadly 1993 attacks in Mumbai in which 257 people were killed, and hundreds injured. He was sentenced to six years in jail in 2007 by a special TADA court; he served 18 months but then was out on bail, fighting the conviction until the Supreme court in March 2013 ordered that he be jailed.

File pic of Sanjay Dut with his wife Manyataa