Yakub Memon hanging may be delayed

Yakub Memon hanging may be delayed

FPJ BureauUpdated: Friday, May 31, 2019, 11:48 PM IST
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New Delhi: The death sentence for the 53-year old chartered accountant Yakub Memon, the lone convict in the 1993 serial Mumbai bomb blasts may not be carried out on July 30th, as scheduled. As a two judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising justices A R Dave and Kurian Joseph had open differences on the issue of staying the hanging they left it to the chief justice of India to set up a larger bench to decide whether Yakub’s execution needs a fresh look. The 3-judge bench will take a call in the matter today.

On Tuesday, In his order, Justice Joseph had said he was staying Yakub’s execution till further orders, but when he asked Justice Dave if a “common order” could be passed, the latter flatly refused to stay the death warrant.

Justice Dave reportedly said Yakub’s execution must not be stopped and quoted a Sanskrit shloka to say: “If the king doesn’t punish the guilty with red eyes then the entire sin will come on the king.” Justice Kurien Joseph, however, was adamant that there had been a clear violation of procedure and “such technicality should not stand in the way to protect the life of a person.”

Since no common order formally staying the death warrant was passed, Yakub’s counsel rushed to CJI H L Dattu, who said the case will be listed for hearing on Wednesday before a three-judge bench.

Appearing for the Maharashtra government, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi resisted any indulgence to Yakub and told the court: “You are only delaying the inevitable. The fact is that this man has to go to the gallows and it cannot be doubted today. We also have respect for human life but the other side is that 257 people were killed. It cannot be argued that this man was not involved.” “Even if a man goes mad after dismissal of the curative petition, nothing can be done. No writ petition can be filed against the orders of this court, otherwise there will not be any finality,” he said.

Referring to the 1993 blasts, Rohatgi said even if a death warrant is quashed today, it can again be issued three months later.

After the Supreme Court rejected Yakub’s curative petition, there has been a flurry of appeals calling for a lenient punishment to him, on the grounds that he had surrendered from Pakistan at the intervention of the intelligence agencies and that this fact should be kept in mind.

Memon, 53, has also sent a mercy petition to Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao on July 23, after the Supreme Court refused his curative petition. However, the Maharashtra government on Saturday advised the Governor to reject the mercy plea. Memon’s wife Rahin had appealed to the judiciary and the government to commute her husband’s capital punishment to life term.

Yakub Memon, who has already spent 22 years in prison, was awarded the death sentence by a Special TADA Court in Mumbai on July 27, 2007 for his role in the blasts, including arranging finances for carrying out the 13 serial explosions which left 257 dead and over 700 injured across the city on March 12, 1993.

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