Mass killer is avenged

After night-long unprecedented dramatic developments at the Supreme Court (SC) that saw his counsels make yet another valiant but unsuccessful bid to save him from the gallows, the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Abdul Razzak Memon was hanged to death at the Nagpur Central Prison on Thursday morning, thus bringing relief to the families of the victims of the major act of terror witnessed by the country.

As had been scheduled earlier, Memon, who ironically turned 53 on Thursday, was executed about 7 am, little over two hours after a three-member Bench of the SC, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, dismissed his plea for a stay on the death warrant served on him by a TADA court in Mumbai.After a post-mortem, Yakub’s body was handed over to his brother Suleiman and cousin Usman, who took the body by an IndiGo flight from Nagpur to Mumbai around noon.

Away from the media glare, his family quietly transported Yakub’s body by an ambulance from the city airport to the Memons’ residence, Al Hussaini building, at Mahim in south-central Mumbai, where it was kept for a few hours.

The body of Yakub, who was the lone death-row convict in the 1993 serial blasts that had left 257 people dead and 713 others injured, was later buried at the Bada kabristan at Marine lines in South Mumbai around 5.30 pm.Not wanting to take any chances, the Maharashtra and Mumbai Police, as also the authorities at the Nagpur Central Prison, had made elaborate security arrangements to ensure peace in the run-up to and after the execution of Yakub.

Nagpur jail had turned into a fortress till the time Yakub’s body left for the airport  for onward transportation to Mumbai. In Mumbai, police had barred the media from either taking photographs or videographing the transportation of Yakub’s body.

Through an order issued under Section 144 of the CrPC that stated that it would remain in force till midnight, the authorities had also banned the media from covering Yakub’s funeral held later in the evening. Police had also taken an undertaking from Yakub’s family that it would not take out a procession of the body to the burial ground.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria was himself out on the streets supervising the law and order arrangements.Notwithstanding the legal battle being waged by Yakub’s counsels at the SC till the early hours of Thursday, everything went according to plan at the Nagpur Central Prison, where Yakub was woken by the authorities at 3.30 am. 

Prison sources said that the moment he saw the officials come to his cell to inform him, he realised that his end had come. “He had not slept the whole night,” the sources said.The only sense of relief he had was that the authorities had on Wednesday night facilitated a telephone conversation with his daughter Zubeida whom he had wanted to meet before going to the gallows.

After having forsaken food for two days, Yakub had treated himself to a roti (flat Indian bread) and a couple of chicken legs, served specially to him on Wednesday night.On their part, his family members had sent a cake to him through the authorities on the eve of his birthday, which was ironically on Thursday. There was no official confirmation as to whether he ate the cake sent to him.         

Even as his counsels tried their best to seek a stay on his execution, the authorities were going through the meticulously-planned motions at the prison.After they woke him up, the authorities asked Yakub to take a hot water bath at around 3.50 am and offered him new clothes to wear.

Soon afterwards, a team of doctors from the Nagpur Government Hospital examined him - for the third time since Wednesday morning - to ensure that he was fit enough to go to the gallows.The authorities handed a Quran to Yakub and asked him to offer prayers. Afterwards, he was served breakfast by the authorities who asked him to take rest for a while before being taken to the gallows.         

At around 6.30 am, Yakub was escorted to the gallows by the prison officials, with hands tied behind his back and face fully covered. In the presence of a handful of prison officials, including Jail Superintendent Yogesh Desai, Chief Judicial Magistrate MM Deshpande read out the operative part of the TADA court order of July 27, 2007 handing him capital punishment for his involvement in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.

The same hangman, who had carried out the hanging of Pakistani terrorist and 26/11 attacks convict Ajmal Kasab at Yerwada prison in Pune, executed Yakub at 7 am, the exact time set for the hanging of the lone 1993 serial blasts convict.The prison authorities formally declared Yakub dead a minute or two later and conveyed the information about the execution of Yakub to the State Home Department which was closely monitoring the situation at the Nagpur jail.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was to make a statement about Yakub’s execution at around 11 am in the State legislature, delayed the formal announcement till the completion of the funeral of the death row convict which took place around 5.30 pm.