Memon was hanged at Nagpur jail in the western state of Maharashtra around 7:00 a.m. on the day of his 53rd birthday, according to the NDTV and CNN-IBN news channels, after last-ditch pleas for clemency were rejected by India’s president and supreme court.
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The Supreme Court on early Thursday rejected a last ditch attempt by 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon to stall his execution.
Lawyers and activists had petitioned on behalf of Memon to Supreme Court Chief Justice, H L Dattu, after Indian President, Pranab Mukherjee, rejected a clemency plea late on Wednesday.
Hours before his death, a three-judge South Carolina bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra started hearing plea for deferring Yakub’s execution at 3.20 am but ruled he was given enough opportunities.
A series of 13 explosions had rocked the country’s commercial capital on March 12, 1993, in which 257 people were killed and 713 injured, besides property worth Rs 27 crore was damaged.
Mumbai has been converted into a fortress as Memon’s body was being taken to the city from Nagpur jail, where he was executed.
Additionally, the convicted killers of the 2002 Gujarat genocide have been granted bail and the Supreme Court is not taking any action to at least put them back in jail if not give them death sentence.
Memon was among 11 prisoners sentenced to death by the trial court.
The Supreme court said there was no procedural lapse in the court’s order on the curative petition.
Making a statement in the House on the hanging of Yakub, Fadnavis said the execution was done after completing all judicial procedures and the convict had exhausted all legal and constitutional remedies. “India should adopt his message, and end the use of the death penalty for retribution”, she added.
The body of Memon, who would have turned 53 today, would be handed over to his relatives who have been camping in a Nagpur hotel after completion of formalities. He was the younger brother of Mushtaq “Tiger” Memon, one of the suspected masterminds of the bombings, a fugitive believed to be in neighboring Pakistan. An earlier petition that was rejected by Mukherjee in April 2014 was filed by Yakub’s brother.
Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said: “It’s extremely sad that India has gone ahead, we had been hoping India will now call for a moratorium”. It dismissed Memon’s plea, clearing the way for his hanging.
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Prior to Afzal, Aamir Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving Pakistani gunman involved in the Mumbai terror attacks which left 166 people dead in November, 2008, was hanged to death at Yerwada central prison in Pune, also in Maharashtra state, on November 21, 2012, in an operation shrouded in secrecy.
