Yakub Memon hanged till death in Nagpur jail
Yakub Memon, convicted in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, was hanged till death at the Nagpur Central Jail in Maharashtra on Thursday morning, officials said.??
He was sent to the gallows -- on his 54th birthday on Thursday -- after several of his court appeals and clemency petitions were rejected by various courts, including the Bombay High Court, the Supreme Court, the Maharashtra governor and the president of India.??
Memon was hanged at 6.35 am IST (1:05 pm NZDT). A medical team at the jail pronounced him dead a short while later.?
?His body was sent for an autopsy by a medical team from a Nagpur government hospital, before being cleared for the last rites.??The last of the legal procedures continued till barely a couple of hours before the execution on Thursday morning before sunrise.
In an unprecedented hearing held at the Supreme Court at 3 a.m. IST on Thursday, the court rejected Memon's plea seeking postponement of his hanging by 14 days.
??The apex court bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Prafulla C. Pant and Justice Amitava Roy post-midnight rejected Memon's plea seeking 14 days' time before the execution of his death sentence is carried out.??
The court said that "the petitioner did not raise any question when earlier, the mercy petition by his brother was rejected by the president in 2014".??Memon had challenged the rejection of his mercy petition by the president.??
His mercy petition was earlier rejected by the president on Wednesday this week, wherein, he raised fresh grounds for clemency -- commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment.??The apex court bench, while rejecting Memon's latest plea, observed that there was nothing new in the new petition as it was a repetition of the same argument that was advanced on Wednesday.??
"Same thing was there in yesterday's (Wednesday) petition. There is nothing new in the new petition," said Justice Misra in the course of the hearing.
Saying that Memon was given "ample opportunity" to present his case before the apex court, the bench said that he was heard for 10 days in the course of the hearing of his review petition while law mandates per half an hour hearing.
Addressing the court, senior counsel Anand Grover said that Memon should get 14 days' time after the rejection of his mercy petition, which was a matter of right given by the court in the well-known Shatrughan Chauhan case.??The court was told that Memon wanted to challenge the president's decision to reject his mercy petition in which he has raised fresh grounds including his mental health related to his schizophrenia.
Grover said that his client did not even get time to execute his will.
Contesting Memon's plea, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that this way there would be a mercy petition every day and repeated mercy petition was bad for the system.
Contending that Memon has exhausted all the legal avenues, the attorney general said that the mercy petition should have been filed before the issuance of the death warrant.
Memon was the first -- and only convict out of 100 in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case -- whose hanging was upheld by the Supreme Court.??The death sentence of 11 others was commuted to life.??A Mumbai Special Court had sentenced him to death in July 2007.
??The death warrant was issued by a Special TADA Court judge on April 29, scheduling the execution for July 30.??
Maharashtra had started preparations for the noose for Memon almost three weeks ago.??Memon filed a fresh appeal in the Supreme Court, followed by a clemency plea with the Maharashtra governor, again a fresh plea in the apex court and a final appeal with the president of India.??
He got no relief from any quarters, paving the way for his execution.
Yakub Memon, convicted in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, was hanged till death at the Nagpur Central Jail in Maharashtra on Thursday morning, officials said.??
He was sent to the gallows -- on his 54th birthday on Thursday -- after several of his court appeals and clemency petitions were...
Yakub Memon, convicted in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, was hanged till death at the Nagpur Central Jail in Maharashtra on Thursday morning, officials said.??
He was sent to the gallows -- on his 54th birthday on Thursday -- after several of his court appeals and clemency petitions were rejected by various courts, including the Bombay High Court, the Supreme Court, the Maharashtra governor and the president of India.??
Memon was hanged at 6.35 am IST (1:05 pm NZDT). A medical team at the jail pronounced him dead a short while later.?
?His body was sent for an autopsy by a medical team from a Nagpur government hospital, before being cleared for the last rites.??The last of the legal procedures continued till barely a couple of hours before the execution on Thursday morning before sunrise.
In an unprecedented hearing held at the Supreme Court at 3 a.m. IST on Thursday, the court rejected Memon's plea seeking postponement of his hanging by 14 days.
??The apex court bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Prafulla C. Pant and Justice Amitava Roy post-midnight rejected Memon's plea seeking 14 days' time before the execution of his death sentence is carried out.??
The court said that "the petitioner did not raise any question when earlier, the mercy petition by his brother was rejected by the president in 2014".??Memon had challenged the rejection of his mercy petition by the president.??
His mercy petition was earlier rejected by the president on Wednesday this week, wherein, he raised fresh grounds for clemency -- commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment.??The apex court bench, while rejecting Memon's latest plea, observed that there was nothing new in the new petition as it was a repetition of the same argument that was advanced on Wednesday.??
"Same thing was there in yesterday's (Wednesday) petition. There is nothing new in the new petition," said Justice Misra in the course of the hearing.
Saying that Memon was given "ample opportunity" to present his case before the apex court, the bench said that he was heard for 10 days in the course of the hearing of his review petition while law mandates per half an hour hearing.
Addressing the court, senior counsel Anand Grover said that Memon should get 14 days' time after the rejection of his mercy petition, which was a matter of right given by the court in the well-known Shatrughan Chauhan case.??The court was told that Memon wanted to challenge the president's decision to reject his mercy petition in which he has raised fresh grounds including his mental health related to his schizophrenia.
Grover said that his client did not even get time to execute his will.
Contesting Memon's plea, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that this way there would be a mercy petition every day and repeated mercy petition was bad for the system.
Contending that Memon has exhausted all the legal avenues, the attorney general said that the mercy petition should have been filed before the issuance of the death warrant.
Memon was the first -- and only convict out of 100 in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case -- whose hanging was upheld by the Supreme Court.??The death sentence of 11 others was commuted to life.??A Mumbai Special Court had sentenced him to death in July 2007.
??The death warrant was issued by a Special TADA Court judge on April 29, scheduling the execution for July 30.??
Maharashtra had started preparations for the noose for Memon almost three weeks ago.??Memon filed a fresh appeal in the Supreme Court, followed by a clemency plea with the Maharashtra governor, again a fresh plea in the apex court and a final appeal with the president of India.??
He got no relief from any quarters, paving the way for his execution.
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