Bollywood star Dutt asks for more time before jail

NEW DELHI: Bollywood star 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. He now has to serve the remaining three-and-a-half-years of his term.

At an emotional press conference last month, Dutt, whose late parents were two of India's biggest film stars, said he would accept his fate and surrender to prison authorities before his deadline.

Some 2.5 billion rupees ($45 million) are riding on Dutt in Bollywood, with four or five films in the pipeline, analysts estimate.

The actor was acquitted in 2007 of conspiracy charges over the blasts staged by Mumbai's criminal world.

The bombings across the city were seen as retaliation for religious rioting in which mainly Muslims died following the razing of an ancient mosque.

But Dutt was found guilty of possession of an automatic rifle and a pistol, which he insisted were only meant to protect his family amid the highly charged atmosphere in Mumbai following the mosque's destruction. (AFP)