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Yakub Memon, the only death-row convict in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, was executed a little before 7 a.m. on Thursday, his 53rd birthday, after being in jail for almost 21 years. The hanging took place only hours after a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court rejected a petition for a stay on his execution in an unprecedented 5 a.m. verdict.
The special hearing
The Supreme Court building had been opened in the wee hours of Thursday, and a three-judge Bench of the court started hearing at 3 a.m. a petition filed by lawyers and activists seeking a stay on the execution of Memon for 14 days. The petitioners had contended that according to Supreme Court guidelines, there should be a gap of at least 14 days between the rejection of mercy petition and the execution.
Memon’s lawyer Anand Grover argued that Memon had the right to challenge the rejection of mercy plea. He said the earlier mercy plea was filed by Memon’s brother, while the one rejected late on Wednesday was filed by Memon himself. Questioning how the President rejected the fresh mercy plea in such a short time, the lawyer said the nearest legal aid centre needed to be informed about rejection, a step that could not be executed because it was late night.
In his counter-argument, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said the death warrant upheld just 10 hours ago by the three judges could not be quashed. Terming the fresh plea an act of “abusing the system”, he said “the game plan is to prolong the stay in jail for years to get the death sentence commuted”. Also, Rohatgi argued it was irrelevant that the earlier mercy petition had been filed by Memon’s brother — it was for Memon just the same.
The final judgment
After the arguments, which ended at around 4:30 a.m., Justice Dipak Misra, who was leading the three-judge Bench, said the execution warrant had been communicated to Memon on July 13. He also said that Memon had never disowned the mercy petition filed by his brother which was rejected on April 11 last year. “The review petition was heard for 10 days whereas the law mandates that only half an hour be given... ample opportunity was given to Yakub Memon to present his case.”
Meanwhile, even as the Supreme Court was about to begin the hearing, a police constable delivered a letter to his brother Suleiman at a hotel in Nagpur in Maharashtra, according to an NDTV report. The contents of the letter were not known, but there was speculation that it was likely a formal intimation to the family that Memon would be hanged at the Nagpur jail at 7 a.m. on Thursday.
The case
Memon was arrested in August 1994 for his role in the coordinated blasts in Mumbai on March 12, 1993, in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition a year earlier. He was charged with financing the terrorist operation and assisting his brother Tiger and gangster Dawood Ibrahim in executing it. A chartered accountant by profession, Memon is said to have handled funds and travel plans for the perpetrators of the terrorist operation, which killed 257 and left about 700 injured.
In a judgment pronounced on September 12, 2006, the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (Tada) court had handed Memon death sentence after finding him guilty of criminal conspiracy, aiding and abetting a terrorist act, illegal possession of arms and ammunition, and possessing explosives with the intent to endanger lives.
All in a day
The early morning sitting of the Supreme Court judges came as senior lawyers filed a petition after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Memon’s mercy plea late on Wednesday following consultations with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Secretary L C Goyal and Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had upheld Memon’s death warrant, and the President’s rejection of the plea meant that Memon could be hanged in Nagpur Central Jail at the scheduled 7 a.m. on Thursday.
Soon after Mukherjee rejected the mercy petition, a group of senior advocates, led by Prashant Bhushan, and activists, met Chief Justice of India H L Dattu and sought a stay on the execution. According to their plea, an order should be passed to ask authorities to give Memon 14 days before execution, after rejection of his mercy petition.
After going through their petition, Dattu referred the matter to Justice Misra, who had headed the three-judge Bench that had earlier on Wednesday held that all rules had been complied with and Memon had exhausted all legal options available to him.
The other two Justices — Prafulla C Pant and Amitava Roy — had first met at Misra’s residence and later decided to hear the plea in the Supreme Court building.
Recent instances of execution
This is the fourth instance of capital punishment being carried out in India since the turn of the century. Earlier, Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged in Kolkata in 2004 for a 1990 case of rape and murder of an 18-year-old girl; Ajmal Kasab in Pune's Yerwada jail in 2012 for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack; and Afzal Guru in Delhi's Tihar jail in 2013 for the December 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament. While Kasab and Guru had been hanged in secrecy, the government had announced the date for Memon's execution beforehand.
The Yakub Memon Time Line:
March 11, 1993
Day before the bombings, Yakub Memon fled to Dubai with his family.
March 12, 1993
Serial bomb explosions rocked 13 places in Mumbai. Property worth millions was destroyed in the blasts.
November 4, 1993
A 10000 page chargesheet against 189 people was filed first, then on 19 November 1993, the case was handed over to CBI, according to a ABP news report.
August 5, 1994
CBI arrests Yakub from New Delhi railway station. Memon claimed he surrenderd.
June 30, 1995
Trails begins in TADA court.
July 27, 2007
Memon family Convicted, Yakub was given death penalty.
March 21, 2013
SC upholds his death sentence.
May 21, 2014
President Pranab Mukherjee rejects Yakub’s mercy plea.
July 30, 2015
Memon was hanged at the Nagpur Central jail
July 30, 2015
Memon was hanged at the Nagpur Central jail
