The TADA court here has issued a death warrant against the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon, pending the disposal of a curative petition filed by him in the Supreme Court.
The warrant, according to Yakub Memon’s lawyer Shubail Farook, states that the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict will be hanged around 7 am on July 30 in the Nagpur Central Jail, where Yakub is currently lodged.
Confirming the development, a surprised Farook told The Pioneer here on Wednesday evening: “Essentially speaking, the TADA court should not have issued a death warrant against my client at a time when his curative petition is pending before the Supreme Court. I have not yet received a copy of the death warrant against my client. But, I have been informed by the Nagpur jail authorities that they had received such a death warrant from the TADA court”.
Replying to a question, Farook said that the TADA court might have issued the death warrant against Yakub on the basis of an advice received from the Home department of the Maharashtra Government. “I do not understand why and how the Maharashtra Government has chosen to hand out such an advice to the TADA court at a time when the matter is still pending in the Supreme Court”.
“It is preposterous if the Maharashtra Home Ministry has chosen to advise the TADA court to issue a death warrant against Yakub on the presumption that the Supreme will reject my client’s curative petition which I filed some time in May. It is yet to come up for hearing,” Yakub said.
Asked if he would be challenging the death warrant against Yakub in the Supreme Court, Farook said: “After going through the death warrant and consulting my client and his family members, I will take a call”.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in New Delhi that the State Government would follow the directives given by the Supreme Court. “Whatever we will do, will be made public at an appropriate time,” he said.
Yakub, who is the absconding 1993 Mumbai blasts’ mastermind Tiger Memon’s brother and key conspirator in the serial blasts, was sentenced to death by the TADA court here on July 27, 2007.
A qualified charted accountant, Yakub was nailed for being a part of the conspiracy, financing the blasts through co-accused Mulchand Shah and a firm Tejrat Internationals owned by Ayub Memon (an absconder) and organising air tickets to fly to Pakistan via Dubai for six accused in the blasts case. He was also held guilty of purchasing vehicles and using them in the blasts, and possessing arms and ammunition. He was been convicted under section sec 3 (3), sec 5, 6 of the TADA Act and sections 3 and 4 (read with six) of the Explosive Substances Act and 120 B of IPC.
Yakub was among the 12 convicts who were handed capital punishment by the TADA court in the 1992 Mumbai serial blasts case.
If the Maharashtra jail authorities execute the death warrant issued by the TADA court, then Yakub will be the first convict to be hanged in connection with the serial blasts that rocked Mumbai on March 12, 1993. In all, 257 people were killed and 713 others injured. Property worth Rs 27 crore was destroyed in the blasts.
In March 2014, the Supreme Court upheld Yahub’s death sentence, while commuting the death sentence of 10 other accused to life. President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy petition in April 2014. On December 11, 2014, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court stayed Yakub’s after the death row convict filed a review petition in the apex court.