Mumbai, Feb 22 (IANS) Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, convicted for possessing illegal arms at the time of 1993 Mumbai serial bombings, is likely to formally request a court Friday for an official report on his character for consideration of his application for leniency in sentence.

The 48-year-old actor has urged for leniency under the Probation of Offenders Act (POA) before the special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court that convicted him in November 2006 for possessing illegal arms but absolved him of conspiracy in the terror attacks.

"We will make a formal plea requesting the court to call for a probation officer's (PO) report considering Sanjay's probation application. We have requested the Tada judge to consider his probation with imposed conditions like prohibiting him from possessing weapons in future," Dutt's senior counsel V.R. Manohar told IANS Thursday.

The POA provides that a judge may call for a report in which probation officers appointed by the state list details about the personality of the accused, his behaviour, past record, family and financial background.

"All his previous three arms licenses have been cancelled and he has been without a weapon for the last 14 years. And he is not a hardened criminal."

The Probation of Offenders Act (POA) allows the court to release a person guilty of lesser offence if satisfied that his conduct has been good and he has reformed.

Dutt has sought to be let off on probation instead of serving a jail term for his conviction under the stringent Arms Act in the 1993 serial bombings case.

A positive report is a must for the benefits to be expended to the Bollywood star.

It is now for special TADA judge Pramod Kode to decide whether to give the actor the benefits of the POA and release him under a set of stringent conditions or sentence him under the Arms Act to a minimum five years rigorous imprisonment for having illegally possessed an AK-56 automatic rifle.

After Dutt's defense team wrapped up their rebuttal on Feb 20, judge Kode said the order would be pronounced along with the final judgment.

On Feb 8, judge Kode had granted Dutt extension of time to surrender until further orders.

If released on probation, one of the mandatory conditions imposed on the actor would be to stay away from "intoxicants", legal sources here said.

Meanwhile, special public prosecutor and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel Ujjal Nikam is likely to request Judge Kode Friday to announce the date for pronouncing the final judgement.

The final judgement will include punishment handed out to the 100 convicts, including Dutt, and reasoning behind the convictions and acquittals.

The March 12, 1993, serial blasts killed 257 people, injured hundreds and destroyed property worth Rs.300 million.

After a long-drawn trail, which started in January 1994, the TADA court started pronouncing verdicts from Sep 12 last year. It pronounced 100 of the 123 accused as guilty and acquitted 23.