Introduction

The 1993 Bombay bombings were a series of 13 bomb explosions that took

place in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India on Friday, 12 March
1993. The coordinated attacks were the most destructive bomb explosions in
Indian history. The single-day attacks resulted in over 350 fatalities and 1200
injuries
The attacks were coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim, don of the Mumbai-based
international organised crime syndicate named D-Company.
Ibrahim is believed to have ordered and helped organise the bombings in
Mumbai, through one of his subordinates, Tiger Memon. The bombings are
also believed to have been financially assisted by the expatriate Indian
smugglers, Hajji Ahmed, Hajji Umar and Taufiq Jaliawala, as well as the
Pakistani smugglers, Dawood Jatt.
Supreme Court of India gave its judgement on 21 March 2013 after over 20
years of judicial proceedings sentencing the accused. However, the two main
suspects in the case, Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, have not yet been
arrested or tried. Maharashtra Government has decided to hang Yakub
Memon on 30 July 2015 on his 53rd birthday.  In a last ditch effort to save
himself from execution, Yakub Memon has submitted a mercy petition.

Why was YAKUB MEMON convicted?

Yakub Memon has spent approximately 15+ years in prison. He was sentenced

to death by hanging.

 Convicted for conspiracy.

 Arranging finance and managing its disbursement through co-
accused, Mulchand Shah and from a firm, Tejarath International, owned
by absconding accused, and brother, Ayub Memon to achieve objectives
of conspiracy.
 Arranged for air tickets through Altafali Mushtaqali Sayyed, East
West travels for the youths who were sent for arms and ammunition
training to Pakistan. Also made arrangements for their lodging and
boarding.
 Purchased motor vehicles which were used while planting bombs.
  Requested co-accused, Amjadali Meherbux and Altafali Sayyed, to
store suitcases containing arms, ammunition, hand grenades and
detonators.

Part in the bombings

 According to Indian authorities, Memon financially assisted his
brother Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim in planning and executing
the bombings. Memon allegedly handled Tiger's funds and also funded
the training of 15 youths who were sent to Pakistan to learn the art of
handling arms and ammunition.

Arrest
 The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation claims that Memon was
arrested New Delhi railway station on 5 August 1994 however Memon
claims that he gave surrendered to police in Nepal on the 28 July 1994.

Trial
 Justice P. D. Kode, in a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act
(TADA) court, found Memon guilty of the following offences on 27 July
2007:

Crime Sentence

Criminal conspiracy Death

Aiding and abetting and facilitating in a terrorist act Life imprisonment

Illegal possession and transportation of arms and Rigorous imprisonment for 14

ammunition years
 Rigorous imprisonment for 10
Possessing explosives with intent to endanger lives
years

Subsequent appeals and petitions

 Memon's conviction and death sentence for conspiracy through
financing the attacks was upheld by a three-judge division bench of
the Supreme Court of India on 21 March 2013. The judges called him the
"mastermind" and "driving force" behind the bombings.  Memon has
consistently claimed innocence.

 Indian President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Memon's petition for

clemency on 11 April 2014.

 On 1 June 2014, Justices J. Khehar and C. Nagappan imposed a stay of

execution while a plea from Memon, that review of death penalties
should be heard in an open court rather than in chambers, was heard by
a constitution bench of the Supreme Court. The Indian Supreme Court
extended the stay in December 2014. In April 2015, the Supreme Court
rejected his appeal.  Memon submitted a curative petition to the
Supreme Court, which was rejected on 21 July 2015. His execution date
was set as 30 July 2015. On 24 July, he launched a fresh appeal to the
Supreme Court, arguing that the death warrant was illegal, as it had
been issued before he had exhausted all his legal avenues of appeal.

Imprisonment
 Memon was originally held at Yerwada Central Jail, and was transferred
to Nagpur Central Jail in August 2007.  While in prison, he has studied
at Indira Gandhi National Open University and earned two masters
 degrees. The first, in 2013, in English literature and the second degree, in
2014, in political science.

WHERE IT LACKED?
SOURCE: MEDIA

SC to hear 1993 Mumbai blasts

convict Yakub Memon's plea against
death sentence on Monday
Jul 25, 2015 08:40 IST

#Maharashtra Governor   #Mercy plea   #NewsTracker   #Supreme Court   #Yakub Memon 

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on Monday the plea of Yakub Abdul Razak
Memon, the sole death row convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, seeking
stay of execution of his death sentence scheduled for 30 July.
Ibnlive image

"I have already assigned the bench. The file had come to me. It will come up on
Monday," said the Chief Justice of India HL Dattu.

"This is a sensitive matter," the bench, also comprising Justices Arun Mishra and
Amitava Roy, said noting that it has been already assigned to a bench headed by
Justice AR Dave for 27 July.
While senior advocate Raju Ramachandran mentioned the petition for Yakub
Memon, another senior counsel TR Andhyarujina appeared for Death Penalty
Litigation Clinic, associated with the National Law University Delhi, which has been
filing petitions in apex court against the execution of death penalty in different cases.
Ramachandran said there is no time to lose for Memon whose life hangs by a thread.
Andhyarujina said the convict is due to be hanged on coming Thursday at 7 in the
morning and sought tagging of the Clinic's plea with that of Yakub.
Memon sought "extra-indulgence" of the apex court for an immediate hearing of his
petition saying that "undue haste" was shown to execute him without following the
due process of law.
Memon got support from the Clinic that he was not given
proper notice of the death warrant proceedings to enable him
to get legal assistance.
He alleged that "death warrant proceedings were carried out
in Mumbai" while he is in jail in Nagpur and therfore he was
not represented through his lawyer.
The petition said the death warrant was issued by the TADA
court in Mumbai when his curative petition was already
pending in the apex court, "thereby presumptuously pre-
determining its negative outcome."
Memon had moved the apex court yesterday seeking stay of
execution of his death sentence on the ground that all legal
remedies have not been exhausted.

In his petition, Memon said that a lower court's death warrant is illegal as all the
legal remedies available to him under the law have not been exhausted and that he
has also approached the Maharastra Governor with a plea for mercy.
Memon had filed the mercy plea before the Governor immediately after his curative
petition was dismissed by the apex court on Tuesday.
His lawyer told the apex court that the trial court did not follow procedure and
guidelines, citing a case in May when the death warrants of an Uttar Pradesh couple
were cancelled.
His petition says a death warrant was issued against him even before he could
exhaust his last legal remedy - a curative petition which was dismissed two days ago
on 21 July.
The Supreme Court in the UP case had then said that such warrants cannot be issued
unless the convict has exhausted all legal options.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu had on 21 July rejected
Memon's plea saying that the grounds raised by him does not fall within the
principles laid down by the apex court in 2002 in deciding the curative petition, the
last judicial remedy available to an aggrieved person.
Memon, in his plea, had claimed he was suffering from schizophrenia since 1996 and
remained behind the bars for nearly 20 years. He had sought commutation of death
penalty contending that a convict cannot be awarded life term and the extreme
penalty simultaneously for the same offence.
The apex court on 9 April this year had dismissed Memon's petition seeking review of
his death sentence which was upheld on 21 March, 2013.
Memon's review petition was heard by a three-judge bench in an open court in
pursuance of a Constitution bench verdict that the practice of deciding review pleas
in chambers be done away with, in cases where death penalty has been awarded.
The apex court, on 2 June, 2014, had stayed the execution of Memon and referred his
plea to a Constitution bench as to whether review petitions in death penalty cases be
heard in an open court or in chambers.

Memon had sought review of the 21 March, 2013 verdict of the apex court upholding
his death penalty in the case relating to 13 coordinated bomb blasts in Mumbai,
killing 257 persons and injuring over 700 on 12 March, 1993.
PTI
_______________________________________________________________

Yakub’s return
Just before the blasts on March 12, 1993, the Memon family slipped out of
Mumbai on a flight to Dubai via Karachi. During the Karachi stopover, they
slipped out and entered Pakistan without any immigration formalities. As the
heat built up, they were whisked away to Bangkok and brought back to Pakistan
after a few days, traveling on Pakistani passports with new identities.  Nearly 17
months after they fled, in  August 1994, Yakub was dramatically arrested in New
Delhi along with six members of his family, which included three women.
However, Tiger and another brother, Ayub, remained in Pakistan.

The government hailed it as a big catch. Before the magistrate who remanded
him, Yakub said that he had returned of his own volition to surrender before the
Indian authorities. The police, however, showed him as being arrested at New
Delhi railway station and the media was told that he had been sent on a
clandestine mission to trigger blasts on Independence Day. Privately, police
sources acknowledged that Yakub had been “arrested” in Kathmandu.
In reality, he and his family were pushed across the border on July
 28 and interrogated by the Intelligence Bureau. Thereafter on August
5  he was taken to New Delhi railway station and formally arrested.

TOWARDS REAL FACTS

Stop Yakub Memon’s Hanging
On 15th July, the Maharashtra government announced that it has
initiated the process for hanging Yakub Memon. On 30th July, 2015 ‘he is
to be hung by the neck till dead’. The announcement seemed inevitable
after the Supreme Court had rejected his review petition on 10th
April this year. Except that Yakub Memon has still not exhausted all legal
remedies as he has a curative petition due to be heard in the Supreme
Court on 21st July. While the state government is treating the matter as
already dried and dusted and making a mockery of the justice system,
there are some very valid reasons for drawing attention to Yakub’s case
for upholding our faith in the judicial process:

1. Controversial arrest: The police claimed to pick Yakub up from

the New Delhi Railway Station on 5th August 1994. In a letter written to
the Supreme Court in 1999, Yakub stated that he came to India on
28th July 1994.  He had been detained on 24th July at Kathmandu
airport and then handed over to the Indian agencies.

2. Implicated and sentenced for trying to help: Yakub has

maintained all along that he had no foreknowledge of and had no hand
in the conspiracy leading to the Mumbai blasts of 1993. He was
working towards voluntarily returning to India to clear his name. He
 co-operated with the investigating agencies and provided vital leads
which have been acknowledged. However, the Court never regarded
these as mitigating factors.

3. No justice under TADA: The Supreme Court in its 2013

judgement confirming death sentence awarded by the TADA court in
2007, held that Yakub officiated for Tiger Memon in Mumbai in the
planning of the attacks in the latter’s absence. The Court accepted that
Yakub was nowhere directly involved in the execution of the blasts, but
his responsibility was greater as he was one of the planners. It said that
he “was constantly present at the Al Husseini building, where the
major part of the plan was made and executed”, interacted with ‘Tiger’s
men’, managed Tiger’s “ill-gotten money,” arranged for air tickets to
Dubai and vehicles which were used in the attacks. He was convicted
under TADA (now lapsed), IPC, Arms Act, Prevention of Damage to
Public Property Act, and under sections of the Explosive Substances
Act on retracted confessions, on the statements of approvers and on
the confession of co-accused.

4. “Special Stigmatizing”: Yakub had returned in 1994 believing

that there would be a fair trial. He was proved wrong. The judgement
decreed capital punishment for him because of his “position of
dominance” and the “gravity of the crime”. Significantly, the Court
commuted the sentences of the 10 others who had been awarded
capital punishment  by  the trial court.
5. Rejection of mitigating factors: The Supreme Court
deliberated on the aggravating and mitigating circumstanceswhile
awarding the quantum of punishment to all the death row convicts.
Notably, in Yakub’s case, the Court noted none other than the fact that
he did not have a prior criminal record. However, in the case of the
other 10 others sentenced to death, the Court noted several other
mitigating factors like lengthy incarceration, good behaviour, co-
operating in the investigation, dependent family members etc. which
were equally applicable to him. In Yakub’s case, the beginning and end
of his being awarded death penalty then is clearly his relationship with
Tiger Memon.

6. A discriminated convict:  While confirming the death sentence

on Yakub, the Court disregarded the fact that he suffered from
depression from 1996. Ironically, a year later, while commuting the
death penalty of 15 death row convicts in 2014, the same Court noted:
“incarceration, in addition to the reasonable time necessary for
adjudication of mercy petitions and preparation for execution, flouts
the due process guaranteed to the convict under Article 21 which
inheres in every prisoner till his last breath.”

7. Incarcerated for 21 years: For 21 years Yakub has lived with

the “brooding horror” which “haunts” a condemned prisoner. To hang
him now is neither fair nor just as it is punishing him twice over. It is
plain vengeance which the state shows towards a condemned and
defenceless man.

8. Denial of reform: A chartered accountant by profession, Yakub

was known to be a silent observer during court proceedings. In 21 years
of which he has spent 8 years in the death row, he has completed two
MAs, one in English and the other in Political Science from IGNOU.
Several recent judgments have emphasised the importance of reform
and rehabilitation based on conduct. However, Yakub’s efforts have
never been recognized.
9. A political hanging: The judicial process through which Yakub
has been pronounced guilty and deserving of capital punishment has
failed to bring to justice the main perpetrators of anti-Muslim carnage
in December 1992 and January 1993, despite the Srikrishna
Commission of Inquiry identifying a host of police officers and
politicians belonging to Shiv Sena for their role.In the last one year, a
similar trend is observable in the investigations into attacks committed
by Hindu terror groups. 15 witnesses have turned hostile in the Ajmer
Dargah blast (2007), the NIA has closed the Modasa case (2008) and
has pressured the special prosecutor to ‘go soft’ on the investigations
into the Malegeon blasts (2008).

The impending hanging of Yakub Memon raises certain very significant

concerns regarding the role of the state and rights of people. As the above
points illustrate, Yakub’s ‘crime’ is that of guilt by association and he is a
scapegoat who has been conveniently caught and convicted as ‘most guilty’.
Yakub Memon returned as a conscientious Indian citizen, albeit with a
‘criminal’ family background. If he is now hanged, the government must
take responsibility for sending out the message that a Muslim cannot be a
good citizen.
It is also imperative to ask as to what justice will be served through such an
execution? Such regressive judicial pronouncement yet again convinces us
that death penalty is not only prejudiced but also irrational. Fraught with
the possibility of judicial error, the irreversibility of the punishment makes
it totally condemnable. Globally, there is a move within countries to
progressively do away with this regressive form of punishment. PUDR
therefore urges the authorities including the judiciary in this case that in
the interests of justice to commute his sentence, and in light of his 21 year-
long incarceration to release him.

OTHER SUPPORTS

Salman Khan, though, isn’t the only one to point out glaring inconsistencies in the
Yakub Memon case. Here are some others who have weighed in:

1) B Raman, head of the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing and the
person who oversaw Yakub Memon’s surrender, wrote about the “strong case”
against Yakub’s death penalty.

2) Former Supreme Court judge Jarjit Singh Bedi describes his “sense of outrage”

at Yakub Memon's treatment by the Indian authorities.

3) Maseeh Rahman, the Mumbai bureau chief of India Today at the time of the
serial bombings in March 1993, talks about the circumstances of Yakub’s return.

4) Investigative journalist and the author of Black Friday, S Hussain Zaidi points out

how Yakub Memon is paying for his brother’s sins even after exposing Pakistani
involvement in the Mumbai blasts.

5) Jyoti Punwani argues that hanging a man who surrendered draws our attention

to the miscarriage of justice in the Bombay riots.

6) R Jagannathan argues that the "travesty of justice" in Yakub's case is another

example of of how a "weak [Indian] state has chosen to show strength against the
weak by indirectly winking at injustice".

CONCLUSION

However, in cases of terrorism, courts and officials usually respond to the blood
lust of society. People accused of terrorism, even those peripheral to the crime,
are sentenced to death and  hanged. In this category comes Afzal Guru, who, as
the evidence clearly showed, was a side-show in the Parliament House attack
case. Yet, somebody needed to hang since the actual perpetrators had been shot
dead and the main conspirators were out of our reach in Pakistan.

In the Rajiv Gandhi case, too, Indian investigators only managed to lay their
hands on some Indian Tamil dupes of the main conspirators. The chief villains –
Prabhakaran and his intelligence chief, Pottu Aman – were in Sri Lanka, the main
culprit dead while her support team led by ‘one-eye Jack’ Sivarasan and his team
committed  suicide when they were surrounded by the police.

So Nalini, Murugan, G. Perarivalan and Chinna Shanthan were sentenced to

death. Nalini’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2000, and earlier
this year, the sentences of the other three were also commuted by the Supreme
Court. The commutation had more to do with the political pressure brought by
various political players in Tamil Nadu, rather than some change of heart of the
system.

Politics is playing a role in the death sentence awarded to Balwant Singh Rajaona,
convicted for the assassination of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. His
execution was scheduled for March 2012, but has been stayed by the Home
Ministry following appeals by the SGPC and various Sikh notables of Punjab.

To reiterate, Yakub is not innocent, but neither does he deserve the death
sentence,  given the background cited above. The charges against him are not of
participating in the military training that was given to several of the conspirators
by the Pakistanis, or of landing the RDX and placing the explosives. He was
charged with financing the blasts, though his co-accused Mulchand Shah got just
five years for the same charge.

Indeed, his co-accused in the three charges he faced have all got lesser sentences
for the same offence. Don’t forget, of course, that the conviction took place under
TADA, a law which has since been discredited and repealed.

In Yakub’s case, the balance has shifted too much towards retribution and is
disproportionate to his crimes.It is for the Indian judicial system to reflect
on whether the death sentence has become a whimsical lottery, tilted a bit against
the Muslim community.
Heinous criminals get away with barbaric crimes, terrorists who are politically
convenient are given the benefit of doubt, but to make up for it, peripheral
players in Islamist terrorist conspiracies feel the full might of the law.