August 7: TADA special judge P D Kode finally granted filmstar Sanjay Dutt exemption from attending the court proceedings and permission to go abroad for shooting a film. Dutt has been allowed to leave the country on Friday and has been asked to resume attending the proceedings from August 20.

Earlier this month, the judge had rejected an application made on behalf of the actor sought permission for Dutt to absent himself from the TADA court for nearly half a month, citing the same reasons.

In his earlier order, the judge had observed that asking for leave for 15 days itself was derogatory of the court's guidelines. Moreover, at that stage it was not certain when the cross examination of DCP Bishnoi would be made by the defence regarding the episode involving the actor and co-accused Samir Hingora and Mansoor Ahmed Syed Ahmed.

Today when the defence counsel Farzana Maledina requested that the earlier application be modified the judge refused. Instead he chose to treat the application as a fresh one. The court found substance in the submission of the defence that the circumstances had changed in the past one week.

Advocate Maledina had pleaded before the court that the current year was very important for the actor from the professional point of view. He is due to play the lead role in many films and it would be damaging to his career if he could not complete the shooting for such films. He will shoot for Mukul Anand's film DUS in Utah, US.

After the defence counsel's plea and the prosecution having no objection to granting exemption, the court was satisfied by the apology made by Dutt regarding the earlier application. A plea on granting permanent exemption for Dutt is pending before the court. The CBI has already stated that it has no objection to this application.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.