Third time in three months that Dutt has got parole.

Actor Sanjay Dutt, imprisoned in the Mumbai bomb blasts case, has been granted a month-long parole. This surprising generosity by the authorities comes a little over a month since Sanjay Dutt came home on a 14-day furlough in October on medical grounds, which was extended by two weeks.

The Indian Express reports that the current parole is for Dutt to take care of wife Maanayata, who is ill. Pune Divisional Commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh signed the parole application and said that reports were verified before it was approved.

The newspaper explains that an inmate is granted two types of prison leaves as per procedures. Parole is granted in case he or she has a serious family issue like illness or a family function to attend, like a wedding. As per procedure, after an inmate seeks parole, a report from the police station and all other papers like medical reports of the relative (in case of illness being reason for parole) are then sent to the divisional commissioner under whose jurisdiction the jail falls.

But in this high-profile case with strong political connections (Dutt's sister Priya Dutt is a Mumbai MP), perhaps the authorities didn't really verify things.

Mid-Day reports that Dutt's wife Maanayata seems hale and hearty and actually was at two separate celebrations on Thursday night and has published photographs of Dutt who seemed anything but seriously unwell. According to the tabloid, Maanayata was at actor Shahid Kapoor's special screening of his latest release R…. Rajkumar for friends at a studio in Juhu in suburban Mumbai and after the event, she along with Shahid and actor Ayushmann Khurrana and Sunil Lulla, MD, Eros India, went to Lulla's home to celebrate his wife Krishika Lulla’s birthday.

The Indian Express reminds readers of the irony: last-month, 70 year-old and wheelchair-bound Zaibunnisa Kazi, also a 1993 serial blasts case convict was denied parole on medical grounds.