Yakub Memon to be hanged on 30 July as SC rejects Mumbai blast convict's plea

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the curative plea filed by 1993 Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon paving the way for his hanging on 30 July. The only convict sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, the 53-year-old Yakub Memon would be hanged at 7 am in the Nagpur Central Jail on the scheduled day. [caption id=“attachment_2342998” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Yakub Memon. Ibnlive image[/caption] Memon was awarded the death penalty by a Tada (Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act) court on 27 July, 2007. Former justice PD Kode who had earlier convicted Memon to death as a judge in the Tada court lauded the decision of the apex court on Tuesday. “It is a victory for the common man who keeps faith in law,” Memon said. According to a DNA report, Memon had moved a petition in the Supreme Court hoping to stay the execution. The Maharashtra government had already given its sanction for the execution and in keeping with procedure his family has also been informed of the impending hanging. On 10 April , the Supreme Court had rejected a petition filed by Memon seeking to stay the death sentence. Memon, a former chartered accountant, is the brother of the prime accused in the case Tiger Memon. Earlier on 21 March 2013, the apex court had upheld the death sentence of Memon. The multiple blasts in Mumbai had claimed 257 lives and left 713 injured. The CBI, which probed the blasts, had alleged that the conspiracy was hatched by Dawood Ibrahim and other absconding persons, including Yakub’s brother Tiger Memon, who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan. The court had commuted the death penalty awarded by a special Tada court to 10 others, who had planted RDX explosives-laden vehicles at various places in Mumbai, to life term by distinguishing their roles from that of Memon. Yakub, who owned an export firm , allegedly handled his brother, gangster Tiger Memon’s, funds. He was accused of having funded the training of 15 youths who were sent to Pakistan for training in the use of arms and ammunition and funding the escape of the family following the blasts. The Memon family, including Yakub, had fled Mumbai before the blasts. After reportedly meeting with a family lawyer in Kathmandu in July 1994, Yakub was set to return to Karachi after being told that he was unlikely to get much mercy if he did surrender to Indian authorities. But his being caught with multiple passports at the Kathmandu airport set off a chain of events that resulted in all the other members of the Memon family also being brought to India. His arrest remains controversial. Officially Yakub was arrested on the morning of 5 August 1994, inexplicably from the New Delhi railway station, far away from Pakistan or Dubai where the Memon family was said to be in hiding. The mercy plea of Memon had earlier been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on 21 May 2014. The decision had been taken by the President following recommendations of the Maharashtra government and the Home Ministry that the mercy petition of Memon be rejected. With agency inputs