Support for Yakub Memon's mercy plea grows as eminent personalities urge President Mukherjee to reconsider

New Delhi: Eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani and leaders from four political parties were among around 300 people who on Sunday urged President Pranab Mukherjee to reconsider the mercy plea of the 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon, set to hang in Nagpur on 30 July. People from diverse fields urged President Pranab Mukherjee to grant Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon reprieve from execution with BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, who off and on makes statements uncomfortable to party leadership, among them. Those who endorsed the petition included BJP’s Shatrughan Sinha, Congress’ Mani Shankar Aiyer, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D. Raja, actor Naseeruddin Shah, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, activist Tushar Gandhi, lawyer Vrinda Grover and economist Jean Dreze. [caption id=“attachment_2362680” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Yakub Memon. IBN Live.[/caption] In their 15-page petition submitted to the President, the signatories numbering around 300 and who included several eminent persons, claimed there are “substantive and fresh grounds” that can be considered on merits to give reprieve to Yakub. The petition came amid a huge debate over Memon’s hanging and BJP’s condemnation of remarks by parties over the execution, saying such a defence is happening due to “petty politics”. The submission came a day before the Supreme Court hears a plea by Yakub Memon for a stay on his execution. In the petition, the signatories have cited various legal points and international commitments to argue that Memon should not be hanged. “We most humbly request your Excellency to consider the case of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon and spare him from the noose of death for a crime that was master-minded by someone else to communally divide the country. “Grant of mercy in this case will send out a message that while this country will not tolerate acts of terrorism, as a nation we are committed to equal application of the power of mercy and values of forgiveness, and justice. Blood letting and human sacrifice will not make this country a safer place; it will, however, degrade us all,” the signatories said. “The president under article 72 of the constitution has the power to grant pardon and to suspend, remit or commute sentence in certain cases. It is in this way that the constitution permits right of appeal,” the letter said. The apex court on 21 July rejected Memon’s curative petition saying it was void of merit. The same day, he filed a mercy petition before the Maharashtra governor seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment. Evoking international law, the letter said: “The plea of enforceability of various international covenant is now no longer a matter of debate but should be considered to be firmly established as a part of international law which the domestic courts are duty bound to give effect to.” The petition said the decision to fix the date of execution was illegal. “Yakub Memon was not given advance notice of the death warrant hearing and as a result of which he and his lawyers could not participate and contest the issuance of the death warrant,” it said. It listed the long duration of trial and incarceration suffered till date by Yakub Menon, and said he was mentally unfit to face the gallows. It also included various academicians, members of the legal fraternity, activists as well as retired judges– Justices Panachand Jain, H S Bedi, P B Sawant, H Suresh, K P Siva Subramaniam, S N Bhargava, K Chandru, and Nagamohan Das, noted lawyer Indira Jaising. Others included academicians like Irfan Habib, Arjun Dev, D N Jha, and social activists Aruna Roy and John Dayal. The signatories said that there are some very “disturbing” aspects of the Yakub case which make the award of death sentence to him as “grossly unfair, arbitrary and excessive. Former Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd.) Markandey Katju too on Sunday said that there has been “gross travesty of justice” in the case of Yakub Memon, the sole death row convict and a co-conspirator of fugitive Dawood Ibrahim in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. Katju said after carefully studying the judgement of the court he finds that the evidence on which Memon has been found guilty is “very weak”. Earlier, Salman Khan on Sunday had tweeted out in support of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon saying his brother Tiger should be hanged instead. Salman tweeted, “Hang Tiger. Brother is being hanged for Tiger. Arre Where is Tiger? Get tiger hang him. Parade him not his brother.” The Bajrangi Bhaijaan superstar even called Yakub an innocent man and tweeted, “One innocent man killed is killing the humanity.” However, Salman was slammed over his tweets and was later apologised ‘unconditionally’, retracting his tweets amid furore from BJP, Shiv Sena in Mumbai. The Supreme Court had dismissed Yakub Memon’s curative petition against death sentence earlier. The home department took the view that the fresh mercy petition is not legally tenable as such, and it should be dismissed and that Yakub should be hanged on 30 July as scheduled. “All the issues raised by Yakub in his fresh mercy petition have been raised in his mercy petition before the President of India and curative petition before the apex court. Since his mercy petition as well as curative petition have been dismissed, we do not see any substance in his fresh mercy petition. As such, we feel that it should be dismissed,” said a Raj Bhavan spokesperson. The hanging is likely to take place at Nagpur Central Jail   With inputs from Agencies