A frustrated brother trying to avoid the media, a tense cousin making a last ditch effort to get a glimpse of his cousin, an entire administrative machinery on its toes and an impatient media waiting to report the sole execution in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case. There was no dearth of drama in front of the Nagpur central prison’s main entrance on Wednesday.
As the three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court and the Maharashtra Governor rejected the death row convict Yakub Memon’s plea on Wednesday afternoon, his brother Suleiman Memon and cousin Usman Memon left for Nagpur central prison to see him one last time. They had been camping in Nagpur since Monday.
“Leave me alone. Please spare us now. We have full faith in the Indian judicial system and the almighty,” a frustrated Sulaiman Memon told reporters who tried to get his reaction outside a hotel here.
The 1993 Mumbai blasts accused will be executed on his 53 birthday and a day before his daughter Zubeda turns 22.
At around 6 p.m., Suleiman, who was acquitted in the 1993 serial bombings case, and Usman went inside the jail accompanied by Yakub’s lawyer Anil Gedam. However, it was not clear whether they were allowed to meet Yakub.
“The procedure has been completed now, only formalities remain,” said former Nagpur jail Superintendent Vaibhav Kamble. “Now the Supreme Court order will reach Mumbai by fax, which will then be sent to the Nagpur jail superintendent.”
“The main aim of the entire jail administration is to keep him healthy and mentally stable. If he can’t sleep, he will be given sleeping tablets. He will be woken up three hours before his execution and allowed to take a bath. The Jail Superintendent and the District Magistrate will then read him his death warrant and explain why he is being hanged,” Mr. Kamble told The-Hindu .
