After a night of unprecedented developments in which Yakub Memon fought to stay alive, the chartered accountant, convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case, was hanged shortly before 7:00 am on Thursday morning at the Nagpur Central Jail.
He turned 54 today. The 1993 bomb blasts, carried out three months after the destruction of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, claimed the lives of 257 people.
Security across Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai and around the Nagpur jail, has been beefed up to counter any outbreak of violence in the wake of the execution.
The Maharashtra Home Ministry has reportedly set three conditions for the body to be handed over to the family: no public procession of body, funeral in a timely manner, no public release of the photograph.
Memon's All-Night Legal Battle
In a pre-dawn session of the Supreme Court, Justices Dipak Misra, Prafulla Chandra Pant and Amitava Roy heard Memon's last plea for a 14-day stay on his execution to mentally prepare himself and meet with family.
They rejected the plea at 5:00 am.
"Stay of death warrant would be a travesty of justice," said Justice Dipak Misra.
Anand Grover, Memon's lawyer, said that he had exhausted all legal remedies. "The Supreme Court has made a tragic mistake," he said. "I hope Yakub Memon has a dignified death."
President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Memon's final mercy petition at around 12:30 am. He filed the petition on Wednesday even as the Supreme Court was hearing his plea that there were procedural lapses in the manner in which his death warrant was issued. The apex court dismissed his plea.
The Maharashtra government told the court that Memon has exhausted all legal remedies, and the death sentence should be carried out as a deterrent for those who plot terror attacks against India. The government has also emphasised the need to provide closure to the families of victims, who have waited 22 years for justice.
The Maharashtra Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao turned down his mercy petition on Wednesday evening.
Memon was found guilty of criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai bomb blasts case, which claimed the lives of 257 people, and he was sentenced to death in 2007. He was the the younger brother of Ibrahim Memon, also known as Tiger Memon, the prime accused in the case, who is absconding. During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that it was Tiger who got Yakub involved in the deadly attack on Mumbai.
While being convicted of a conspiracy to commit the terrorist attack, Memon had argued that he was never actually involved in executing the serial bomb blasts on March 12, 1993.
Polarising Decision
The case has deeply polarised opinion after it has become increasingly clear that Memon cooperated with Indian intelligence agencies to return with family from Karachi, where they were under the protection of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's intelligence agency.
Indian intelligence official B. Raman has written a piece confirming Yakub's cooperation, highlighting the fact that he had brought evidence which helped India prove Pakistan's involvement in the event, which was published in the news outlet Rediff.com recently.
Several eminent Indians, including former Supreme Court judges, film makers, activists and politicians, petitioned Mukherjee to stay Memon's execution citing procedural lapses and "disturbing aspects of this case which make the award of death sentence of Yakub Memon as grossly unfair, arbitrary and excessive."
In a letter to Mukherjee, they wrote that Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim are the main conspirators in the case. "Both Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim have been absconding and Yakub, brother of Tiger Memon, who was not the main actor in the conspiracy is being executed," they wrote.
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He turned 54 today. The 1993 bomb blasts, carried out three months after the destruction of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, claimed the lives of 257 people.
Security across Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai and around the Nagpur jail, has been beefed up to counter any outbreak of violence in the wake of the execution.
The Maharashtra Home Ministry has reportedly set three conditions for the body to be handed over to the family: no public procession of body, funeral in a timely manner, no public release of the photograph.
Memon's All-Night Legal Battle
In a pre-dawn session of the Supreme Court, Justices Dipak Misra, Prafulla Chandra Pant and Amitava Roy heard Memon's last plea for a 14-day stay on his execution to mentally prepare himself and meet with family.
They rejected the plea at 5:00 am.
"Stay of death warrant would be a travesty of justice," said Justice Dipak Misra.
Anand Grover, Memon's lawyer, said that he had exhausted all legal remedies. "The Supreme Court has made a tragic mistake," he said. "I hope Yakub Memon has a dignified death."
President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Memon's final mercy petition at around 12:30 am. He filed the petition on Wednesday even as the Supreme Court was hearing his plea that there were procedural lapses in the manner in which his death warrant was issued. The apex court dismissed his plea.
The Maharashtra government told the court that Memon has exhausted all legal remedies, and the death sentence should be carried out as a deterrent for those who plot terror attacks against India. The government has also emphasised the need to provide closure to the families of victims, who have waited 22 years for justice.
The Maharashtra Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao turned down his mercy petition on Wednesday evening.
Memon was found guilty of criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai bomb blasts case, which claimed the lives of 257 people, and he was sentenced to death in 2007. He was the the younger brother of Ibrahim Memon, also known as Tiger Memon, the prime accused in the case, who is absconding. During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that it was Tiger who got Yakub involved in the deadly attack on Mumbai.
While being convicted of a conspiracy to commit the terrorist attack, Memon had argued that he was never actually involved in executing the serial bomb blasts on March 12, 1993.
Polarising Decision
The case has deeply polarised opinion after it has become increasingly clear that Memon cooperated with Indian intelligence agencies to return with family from Karachi, where they were under the protection of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's intelligence agency.
Indian intelligence official B. Raman has written a piece confirming Yakub's cooperation, highlighting the fact that he had brought evidence which helped India prove Pakistan's involvement in the event, which was published in the news outlet Rediff.com recently.
Several eminent Indians, including former Supreme Court judges, film makers, activists and politicians, petitioned Mukherjee to stay Memon's execution citing procedural lapses and "disturbing aspects of this case which make the award of death sentence of Yakub Memon as grossly unfair, arbitrary and excessive."
In a letter to Mukherjee, they wrote that Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim are the main conspirators in the case. "Both Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim have been absconding and Yakub, brother of Tiger Memon, who was not the main actor in the conspiracy is being executed," they wrote.
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