Nationalist Congress Party leader Majeed Memon on Thursday said that the execution of the 1993 Mumbai terror attacks convict Yakub Memon appeared to be a "hasty" decision.
"Well, Yakub has finally been executed and it is said that all the remedial measures as the law recognizes have duly been exhausted. But it appears to the people of this country, and more particularly to those who were instrumental in seeking mercy from the President of India, the signatories being former Supreme Court judges, high court judges, eminent dignitaries lawyers, MPs, their petitions have seemed to bore no fruit," Majeed Memon told ANI.
"In the meantime hectic exercise in the Supreme Court during the last two days has shown the exigency and the urgency in this matter because the government of Maharashtra had already fixed 30th July early morning as the time of his execution and they wanted to stick to it," the criminal lawyer added.
"In the mind of many people, including myself, it appears that a bit of haste is shown. If you could have waited for 21 yrs then you could have waited for 21 days more and then would have satisfied everybody with regard to the procedural lapses," he added.
"Supreme Court has however told that there were no lapses and everything was in order. We have no option but to bow down to what the highest court of the land has to say, being officials of court ourselves. But one thing must be sad that whether killing of an accused person found guilty, serves as a deterrent or not. This raises the question place of death penalty in our books of Statute," Majeed pointed out.
"In this context on 11th of July, this year, the honorable Chairman of Commission of India Justice Shah had organized a full day seminar, which was participated by eminent jury, lawyers, some members of Parliament and journalists, some law school heads, and every thought provoking discussion went on for the whole day and towards the end of the day while culminating the seminar, there was an overwhelming view that death penalty has no place in our statute and India should take a lead now, like many other countries, to abolish death penalty," he noted.
He added "In this context after collecting the view of everybody the Law Commission Chairman is in the process of writing report and recommendation which should be released anytime in August and that recommendation would be considered by government and parliament of India. And I think a day may come when we may see the exit of death penalty from our punishment code."
"As far as Yakub is concerned, the story should be over now and I am only afraid that certain people, who are dissatisfied with this hanging, should not express their anguish publically and they should exercise restrain because law and order is a very important question," Majeed pointed out.
Memon was hanged at the Nagpur Central jail today morning after his second mercy plea before President Pranab Mukherjee was rejected late last night.
In an unprecedented move, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court presided over a fresh hearing of the case throughout the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday before dismissing the final appeal for mercy by Yakub, the only person to be sentenced to death for the series of bombings in Mumbai.
While Yakub Memon's lawyer Anand Grover had sought a reprieve of 14 days to challenge rejection of mercy plea by the President, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi maintained that if mercy petitions are filed over and over again, death warrants will never be executed.
The apex court had on Wednesday also dismissed the curative petition of Yakub, saying proper procedure was followed in disposing of Yakub's curative petition.
Memon was convicted for being the "driving spirit" behind the blasts that killed at least 257 people at separate landmarks in the financial capital, including the Bombay Stock Exchange and two crowded markets.
