So long as death penalty is on the statute book, there can be little objection if the State goes ahead to implement the death sentence to one of the main accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case which had left 257 innocents dead and several more seriously injured. Yakub Memon, having lost his plea in the Supreme Court against the death sentence by the designated court, has exhausted all options. His last-ditch mercy appeal to the President too is most likely set to fail. And thereafter, he must hang for his heinous and inhuman crime. He was tried along with the other accused, including his brother Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim, who were tried in absentia, and sentenced to death for the most barbaric terror attack in Mumbai.
Whether or not a modern State is right in retaining death penalty as punishment for certain specific crimes is an altogether different issue. Societal mores in India might not warrant the abolition of capital punishment, at least not at this stage of our socio-economic development. Activists against death penalty cannot be faulted for persisting with the campaign. Once the people are sufficiently sensitized to what critics call `state-sponsored murder’, maybe the legislators would revisit the issue. But, as we said at the outset, so long as death penalty is part of the statute, Yakub Memon must hang for being a part of the conspiracy to kill innocents and disrupt normal life in the great and bustling Mumbai. Mercy in his case would be entirely misplaced.
