A special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court here has issued the death warrant against Yakub Memon, a convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blast case. The move comes even as his curative petition is pending before the Supreme Court.
Special TADA judge G.A. Sanap signed the death warrant on April 29. It says Memon is likely to be hanged at the Central jail in Nagpur at 7 a.m. on July 30, Shubail Farook, his lawyer in the Supreme Court, told The Hindu.
Asked how a death warrant could be issued when a petition was pending, Mr. Farook said, “That is the malady of our system.”
If the court rejects the petition, Memon will be the first accused of the 1993 blasts to be executed. Memon was arrested in 1994 and has been in jail since.
SC to hear curative plea this month
The Supreme Court will hear later this month the curative petition filed by Yakub Memon, against whom a special TADA court here has issued the death warrant in the 1993 Mumbai serial blast case.
Yakub Memon, younger brother of the absconding blasts mastermind, Tiger Memon, was sentenced to death by the TADA court on July 27, 2007. The trial court held him guilty of arranging finances for the other accused in the conspiracy for the blasts, which killed 257 people and injured over 700.
His appeals were rejected by the higher courts. Last March, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence, holding him guilty of being the “driving spirit” of the serial blasts.
The court stayed his execution in 2014, but lifted it in April.
President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy petition in May.
Memon’s parents and his three brothers and sister-in-law faced trial in the case. While his wife, mother and brother, Suleiman, were acquitted, brothers Essa and Yusuf and sister-in-law Rubeena were convicted and sentenced.
Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim is an accused in the case.
Actor Sanjay Dutt has been convicted in the case for possession of illegal weapons.
