As the 1993 Mumbai serial death row convict Yakub Abdul Razak Memon made a last-ditch effort to escape from the gallows ahead of his execution slated for July 30, his wife Rahin, daughter Zubeda and others family members visited him at the Nagpur Central Prison on Thursday. Yakub’s family members, who had arrived from Mumbai at the Nagpur central prison at 9 am, left the prison at around 11 am. Informed prison sources said that their meeting with Yakub lasted for little over an hour.
While his meeting with his family members brought some relief to Yakub, what kept him optimistic about his missing a date with death were the last of twin moves he has made to escape from the gallows were: a mercy petition that he moved before the Maharashtra Governor under Article 161 of the Constitution and a petition he filed before the Supreme Court seeking a stay on his petition. “Through the Nagpur prison authorities, my client has routed a mercy petition to the Governor under Article 161 of Constitution. We are awaiting a response from the Governor for the mercy petition,” Yakub’s lawyer Anil Gedam said.
The Article 161 of the Constitution states: “The Governor of a State shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the State extends”.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson at the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai said the Governor had not yet received Yakub’s mercy petition.
Meanwhile, the authorities have beefed up security in Mumbai and neighbouring districts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad, where Yakub’s brother and the absconding mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts Tiger Memon used to operate in the distant past.