New Delhi: As Yakub Memon’s life hangs in the balance, the Supreme Court on Monday will hear this 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict’s final plea, challenging the death warrant against him.
Yakub has challenged the Maharashtra government ordering the death warrant before his curative petition was heard by the Supreme Court.
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Support from unexpected quarters
Markandey Katju: Former Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd) Markandey Katju said that there has been “gross travesty of justice” in the case of Memon who is going to be hanged on July 30 for taking part in the conspiracy to carry out serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993. He said after carefully studying the judgement of the court, he finds that the evidence on which Memon has been found guilty is “very weak”.
Sitaram Yechury: Senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, criticising the death sentence, maintained that Memon should be jailed for life. “The CPM considers that Yakub Memon is a part of a conspiracy and he should certainly be punished. We have reason and International Committee have given its consent too. He should be under life imprisonment.”
Salman Khan: Bollywood’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan had tweeted that while Yakub should be let off, his brother Tiger should be captured and executed. After earning the wrath of the Twitterati and his father, he apologised and pulled down his tweets.
Petitions: There were several people who sent a petition to President Pranab Mukherjee to grant Memon reprieve from execution. In their 15-page petition submitted to the President, the signatories included Bharatiya Janata Party MP Shatrughan Sinha and expelled party MP Ram Jethmalani, MPs like Mani Shankar Aiyar (Congress), Majeed Memon (NCP), Sitaram Yechury (CPM), D Raja (CPI), KT S Tulsi and HK Dua (nominated) and T Siva (DMK), former CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI(ML-Liberation) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Brinda Karat (CPM), filmmakers and actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Mahesh Bhatt, MK Raina and Tushar Gandhi.
It also included various academicians, members of the legal fraternity, activists as well as retired judges – Justices Panachand Jain, HS Bedi, PB Sawant, H Suresh, KP Siva Subramaniam, SN Bhargava, K Chandru, and Nagmohan Das, noted lawyer Indira Jaising.
Others included academicians like Irfan Habib, Arjun Dev, DN Jha, and social activists Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze and John Dayal.
Memon is scheduled to be hanged on July 30 as per the warrant issued by TADA Court.
(With inputs from agencies)