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Yakub gets noose on birthday

President rejects Mumbai blast convict's mercy petition for second time
Last Updated 29 July 2015, 21:20 IST

Yakub Memon, a condemned convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, is set to be hanged in Nagpur jail on Thursday — also his birthday — as President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his fresh mercy plea after the Supreme Court cleared all legal hurdles and found no fallacy in issuance of death warrant issued against him.

The decision by President Mukherjee came after intense consultation with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who went to Rashtrapati Bhavan to convey the government’s advice for rejecting the mercy plea. The President, who had earlier in April, 2014 rejected Memon’s previous plea, decided to go with the government’s view after he was briefed on legal aspects of the SC’s verdict by Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar.

In a last-ditch effort, Memon’s lawyers made yet another attempt to stop his execution by approaching the SC again. The activists, backing Memon’s plea tried to seek an appointment with the President to press his case. But the word from Rashtrapati Bhavan was Mukherjee had made up his mind.

Earlier, a three-judge bench presided over by Justice Dipak Misra dismissed his petition also contending “procedural lapse” in deciding his curative petition earlier this month as well as other infirmities like delay in informing him by the Maharashtra authorities of the warrant.

Memon, who turns 53 on Thursday, ran out of all legal options when a three-judge bench unanimously upheld the validity of the death warrant, issued on April 30 by a Mumbai TADA judge. The court also refused pass any order on staying his execution till his fresh clemency petition is decided.

As the bench, also comprising Justices Prafulla C Pant and Amitava Roy began hearing the reference following difference of views in division bench, Memon’s counsel made frantic efforts to get relief by filing another mercy petition with President Pranab Mukherjee. By the evening, the Maharashtra Governor and President rejected his plea.

After the day-long hearing, the bench passed the order, saying Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi’s view “deserves acceptance” that though it was prerogative of the Chief Justice of India to set up a bench, in Memon’s case three senior-most judges of the SC decided his curative petition on July 21.

Justice Kurian Joseph had on Tuesday differed with Justice A R Dave and held that Memon’s curative petition was to be decided by those judges who had handled his review petition on April 9 in accordance with the SC rules, 2013. “We disagree with the view of Justice Joseph,” the bench said.Rohatgi submitted that the death warrant against him was issued on April 30 suo motu following rejection of his second review petition after 10-day-long hearing.

Giving out the list of dates, he submitted that the convict was informed about 17 days before the scheduled date of hanging in conformity with the SC’s previous verdict affixing 14-day time for intimation of the death warrant.

The bench again agreed to his submission, saying “there is no violation of the said norm in the case”. The AG also pointed out that the President had earlier on April 11, rejected mercy petition on behalf of Memon.

The counsel for the petitioner also contended that SC verdict regarding the procedure for issuance of death warrant like giving hearing to the convict as enunciated in the Shabnam case on May 27 was not followed in the instant case. The bench, however, found merit in the AG’s submission that since the warrant was issued on April 30, the said verdict could not be applied in retrospective effect.

Coming out of the court, Memon’s counsel Raju Ramachandran refused to comment on the verdict.
The SC had in March, 2013 found Memon, the brother of fugitive Ibrahim Memon, also known as Tiger Memon, the alleged mastermind and the prime accused of the case, as the “driving spirit” behind the blasts that killed 257 people in Mumbai in March 12, 1993.

The court had then commuted the death sentence awarded to 10 others to life imprisonment till their death but maintained that Memon’s “commanding position and the crime of utmost gravity” warranted capital punishment.

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(Published 29 July 2015, 21:20 IST)

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