SC dismisses Yakub Memon’s petition against death warrant

The curtains came down on the legal battle of 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts convict Yakub Memon as the Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed his petition seeking a stay of his execution slated for July 30 and quashing of his death warrant.

“Issue of death warrant is in order,” said the apex court.

The court did not find fault with the issuance of the death warrant by the TADA court that conducted the trial of the accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.

The three-judge bench said the dismissal of Memon’s curative petition by three senior-most judges of the apex court was correct.

The apex court further said it was not inclined to go into the issue of the second mercy plea made by Memon with the Maharashtra governor.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra governor Vidyasagar Rao too rejected Memon’s mercy petition.

“Memon fails to make out a case that mandatory 14 days time was not conveyed to him for execution by the state government,” said the apex court.

Memon had asked the court to stop his hanging scheduled for Thursday on the grounds that rules were violated.

Memon’s petition for mercy was rejected by Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao also on Wednesday.

He also appealed on Wednesday to the President for mercy for the second time.

The Chief Justice set up the three-judge bench on Tuesday after a two-member bench delivered a split verdict on Memon’s petition.

Following the disagreement between justices AR Dave and Kurian Joseph on the issue, the matter was referred to Chief Justice HL Dattu, who constituted a larger bench of justices Dipak Misra, Prafulla C Pant and Amitava Roy to decide the destiny of Memon, the lone death row convict in the blasts who will turn 53 on Thursday.

Memon had said in his petition that the death warrant was issued before he had exhausted all legal remedies available to him.

Dave dismissed his petition but Joseph disagreed, saying Memon’s curative petition needs to be heard afresh as it was dismissed without following correct procedure and rules laid down by the top court.

On Tuesday, Memon also filed a fresh petition challenging the validity of the Supreme Court’s July 21 order rejecting his curative petition.

Memon and 11 others were given the death penalty by a special TADA court in July 2007 for the dozen explosions that ripped through India’s financial hub, killing 257 people at various landmarks and injuring more than 1,000.

The chartered accountant, the only well-educated member of the Memon family, was found guilty of criminal conspiracy, arranging money for buying vehicles used by the bombers and organising air tickets to Dubai for some of them.