Yakub Memon’s Hanging: Communalisation and Polarised Public Opinion

By Deepak Parvatiyar

August 1, 2015

5.00/5 (100.00%) 2 votes

Published in elections.in (http://www.elections.in/blog/yakub-memons-hanging-communalisation-polarised-public-opinion/)

In the early morning of 30 July – more than 22 years after the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai had claimed 257 innocent lives – one of the key masterminds Yakub Abdul Razak Memon was hanged to death at the Nagpur Central Jail.

Two dreaded masterminds of the Bombay bombings (Mumbai was still Bombay then) – Dawood Ibrahim and Yakub’s elder brother ‘Tiger’ Memon – are still absconding. The Indian government and the law enforcing agencies have failed miserably in bringing them to book. All the key perpetrators had fled to Pakistan with the support of Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI.

Mystery Over Yakub Memon’s Arrest

In fact, Yakub was the only big catch that the Indian intelligence agencies could manage. However, the truth behind his arrest is still shrouded in mystery. Much ruckus has been made on whether he had voluntarily surrendered to the police in Nepal’s capital city Kathmandu on 28 July 1994 as he claimed, or he was arrested at New Delhi railway station on 5 August 1994, as claimed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

An article by late B. Raman (who was also the Research and Analysis Wing’s head of the counter-terrorism division) that was published by rediff.com two years after his death, claimed that Yakub was “informally” picked up in Kathmandu with the help of the Nepal police “on suspicion”. Thereafter, he was “driven across Nepal to a town in Indian territory, flown to Delhi by an aircraft of the Aviation Research Centre and formally arrested in Old Delhi by the investigating authorities and taken into custody for interrogation.” Raman wrote that “The entire operation was coordinated by me”.

Yakub was arrested with a briefcase that contained a recording (made on 19 May 1994 in Karachi) of a conversation between him and his brothers – ‘Tiger’ and Ayub – and a Karachi-based smuggler Taufiq Siddique Jaliawala. Taufiq was the main link between Pakistan’s ISI, Tiger Memon and another Pakistani smuggler Syed Arif who had helped the ISI in the bomb blasts conspiracy. In the tape, they discussed about Dawood, ISI and also whether it was safe to go to Dubai!

Raman wrote that there was “not an iota of doubt” about the involvement of Yakub who would have “deserved the death penalty if one only took into consideration his conduct and role before July 1994”.

Controversy Over Yakub Memon’s Hanging

Yet, what sparked a row was Raman’s assertion that “there is a strong case for having second thoughts about the suitability of the death penalty in the subsequent stages of the case…if one also takes into consideration his conduct and role after he was informally picked up in Kathmandu”.

Raman went on to express that he was “disturbed” because of the fact that “some mitigating circumstances in the case of Yakub Memon and some other members of the family were probably not brought to the notice of the court by the prosecution…in their eagerness to obtain the death penalty…”

A certain tangent has been given to Raman’s observation. As recently as 26 July, Muslim groups Jamiat Ulema-E-Hind, Jamaat-E-Islami, and Ulema Council shared a platform along with the Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi in Mumbai to make a plea against Yakub’s hanging –“ Everyone knows Yakub surrendered. Raman is the most prominent officer in this case. We only say that an innocent person should get justice”.

The irrepressible retired Supreme Court judge, Markandey Katju, went on to claim that the evidence against Yakub was “very weak” to prove him guilty. Former Supreme Court judge, Justice Harjit Singh Bedi, on his part wanted the SC to take suo motu cognizance of Raman’s statement. He stated that he was “in principle against the imposition of death penalty….(even though) I have often upheld death penalties”.

Communalisation of Yakub Memon’s Death Sentence

With a right wing government at the Centre, the issue even took a communal hue, ominously, even signaling an suspecting finger on the very judiciary! The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi went on to claim that Yakub was being hanged “because he’s a Muslim”. Bollywood star Salman Khan – himself on bail in a hit-and-run case – went on to tweet for Yakub only to later delete it and apologise.

In fact, there were many prominent personalities including judges, lawyers, journalists (largely left wing and ‘secular’) politicians who, too, had petitioned the President to reconsider Yakub’s mercy plea. They did have their arguments not because of Yakub’s culpability but because of other corresponding facts. While one such petition pleaded that “Yakub Memon was not given advance notice of the death warrant hearing and as a result of which he and his lawyers could not participate and contest the issuance of the death warrant…”, Owaisi argued that Yakub did not have the backing of any political party unlike the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh in Tamil Nadu and Punjab. “Which political party is backing Yakub Memon? Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab has gone to the extent of pardoning Balwant Singh Rajoana,” he went on to state.

Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi, too, echoed the same as he pointed out that the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh were yet to be hanged. Some even sought to refer to the Justice BN Srikrishna Commission report on the Mumbai riots and blasts in the mid-90s. The report had held certain Shiv Sena leaders responsible for the riots but it was not accepted by the then government.

How Did the Yakub Memon’s Case Proceed?

In light of these arguments, let’s have a quick look at the case as it proceeded against Yakub. It was on 27 July 2007 that Justice P. D. Kode of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court awarded death sentence to Yakub for criminal conspiracy and pronounced life imprisonment to him for aiding and abetting and facilitating in a terrorist act; rigorous imprisonment for 14 years for illegal possession and transportation of arms and ammunition; and rigorous imprisonment for 10 years for possessing explosives with an intent to endanger lives.

Thereafter, the Supreme Court, following an appeal by Yakub, too, confirmed his conviction and awarded death sentence on 21 March 2013 for conspiracy through financing the attacks. The judges then went on to call Yakub the “mastermind” and “driving force” behind the bombings.

Yakub then filed a Review Petition seeking review of Supreme Court’s judgment confirming his death sentence, which was rejected by a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice BS Chauhan on 30 July 2013. Yakub then filed a Writ Petition before the Supreme Court but the court rejected his application for oral hearing and dismissed his review petition by circulation. He then filed a Writ Petition before the Supreme Court as the issue of oral hearing of review petitions against death sentences was being heard by the apex court.

President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Memon’s petition for clemency on 11 April 2014 and thereafter, on 1 June 2014, the apex court imposed a stay on execution while Yakub’s plea for the hearing of review of death penalties in an open court rather than in chambers, was heard by a constitution bench of the Supreme Court. The stay on execution was then extended in December 2014. The open court hearing on his review petition began on 24 March 2015, which the court finally dismissed on 9 April 2015.

Thereupon, Yakub filed a curative petition, but that too, was rejected by the Supreme Court on 21 July 2015. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Government issued a death warrant setting 30 July 2015 as the date for Yakub’s execution. The latter then filed a mercy petition with the Governor of Maharashtra and then filed a Writ before the Supreme Court of India for a stay on his execution till the mercy petition was decided.

In spite of the pressure, the judiciary saw remarkable consistency and that speaks for its maturity. What more? In a first, the Supreme Court opened its doors in the middle of the night for the three-member bench to hear the last-ditch petition by Yakub on the eve of his hanging. The hearing started at 3.20 am and the verdict was announced around 4.50 am, just two hours before the scheduled hanging on 30 July!

Obviously, the court did hear a criminal’s plea till the very last. The judgment pronounced is honoured.

Yakub Memon’s Hanging: Communalisation and Polarised Public Opinion

By Deepak Parvatiyar
August 1, 2015

5.00/5 (100.00%) 2 votes

In the early morning of 30 July – more than 22 years after the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai had claimed 257 innocent lives – one of the key masterminds Yakub Abdul Razak Memon was hanged to death at the Nagpur Central Jail.

Two dreaded masterminds of the Bombay bombings (Mumbai was still Bombay then) – Dawood Ibrahim and Yakub’s elder brother ‘Tiger’ Memon – are still absconding. The Indian government and the law enforcing agencies have failed miserably in bringing them to book. All the key perpetrators had fled to Pakistan with the support of Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI.

Mystery Over Yakub Memon’s Arrest

In fact, Yakub was the only big catch that the Indian intelligence agencies could manage. However, the truth behind his arrest is still shrouded in mystery. Much ruckus has been made on whether he had voluntarily surrendered to the police in Nepal’s capital city Kathmandu on 28 July 1994 as he claimed, or he was arrested at New Delhi railway station on 5 August 1994, as claimed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

An article by late B. Raman (who was also the Research and Analysis Wing’s head of the counter-terrorism division) that was published by rediff.com two years after his death, claimed that Yakub was “informally” picked up in Kathmandu with the help of the Nepal police “on suspicion”. Thereafter, he was “driven across Nepal to a town in Indian territory, flown to Delhi by an aircraft of the Aviation Research Centre and formally arrested in Old Delhi by the investigating authorities and taken into custody for interrogation.” Raman wrote that “The entire operation was coordinated by me”.
Yakub was arrested with a briefcase that contained a recording (made on 19 May 1994 in Karachi) of a conversation between him and his brothers – ‘Tiger’ and Ayub – and a Karachi-based smuggler Taufiq Siddique Jaliawala. Taufiq was the main link between Pakistan’s ISI, Tiger Memon and another Pakistani smuggler Syed Arif who had helped the ISI in the bomb blasts conspiracy. In the tape, they discussed about Dawood, ISI and also whether it was safe to go to Dubai!
Raman wrote that there was “not an iota of doubt” about the involvement of Yakub who would have “deserved the death penalty if one only took into consideration his conduct and role before July 1994”.

Controversy Over Yakub Memon’s Hanging

Yet, what sparked a row was Raman’s assertion that “there is a strong case for having second thoughts about the suitability of the death penalty in the subsequent stages of the case…if one also takes into consideration his conduct and role after he was informally picked up in Kathmandu”.
Raman went on to express that he was “disturbed” because of the fact that “some mitigating circumstances in the case of Yakub Memon and some other members of the family were probably not brought to the notice of the court by the prosecution…in their eagerness to obtain the death penalty…”
A certain tangent has been given to Raman’s observation. As recently as 26 July, Muslim groups Jamiat Ulema-E-Hind, Jamaat-E-Islami, and Ulema Council shared a platform along with the Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi in Mumbai to make a plea against Yakub’s hanging –“ Everyone knows Yakub surrendered. Raman is the most prominent officer in this case. We only say that an innocent person should get justice”.
The irrepressible retired Supreme Court judge, Markandey Katju, went on to claim that the evidence against Yakub was “very weak” to prove him guilty. Former Supreme Court judge, Justice Harjit Singh Bedi, on his part wanted the SC to take suo motu cognizance of Raman’s statement. He stated that he was “in principle against the imposition of death penalty….(even though) I have often upheld death penalties”.

Communalisation of Yakub Memon’s Death Sentence

With a right wing government at the Centre, the issue even took a communal hue, ominously, even signaling an suspecting finger on the very judiciary! The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi went on to claim that Yakub was being hanged “because he’s a Muslim”. Bollywood star Salman Khan – himself on bail in a hit-and-run case – went on to tweet for Yakub only to later delete it and apologise.
In fact, there were many prominent personalities including judges, lawyers, journalists (largely left wing and ‘secular’) politicians who, too, had petitioned the President to reconsider Yakub’s mercy plea. They did have their arguments not because of Yakub’s culpability but because of other corresponding facts. While one such petition pleaded that “Yakub Memon was not given advance notice of the death warrant hearing and as a result of which he and his lawyers could not participate and contest the issuance of the death warrant…”, Owaisi argued that Yakub did not have the backing of any political party unlike the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh in Tamil Nadu and Punjab. “Which political party is backing Yakub Memon? Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab has gone to the extent of pardoning Balwant Singh Rajoana,” he went on to state.
Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi, too, echoed the same as he pointed out that the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh were yet to be hanged. Some even sought to refer to the Justice BN Srikrishna Commission report on the Mumbai riots and blasts in the mid-90s. The report had held certain Shiv Sena leaders responsible for the riots but it was not accepted by the then government.

How Did the Yakub Memon’s Case Proceed?

In light of these arguments, let’s have a quick look at the case as it proceeded against Yakub. It was on 27 July 2007 that Justice P. D. Kode of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court awarded death sentence to Yakub for criminal conspiracy and pronounced life imprisonment to him for aiding and abetting and facilitating in a terrorist act; rigorous imprisonment for 14 years for illegal possession and transportation of arms and ammunition; and rigorous imprisonment for 10 years for possessing explosives with an intent to endanger lives.
Thereafter, the Supreme Court, following an appeal by Yakub, too, confirmed his conviction and awarded death sentence on 21 March 2013 for conspiracy through financing the attacks. The judges then went on to call Yakub the “mastermind” and “driving force” behind the bombings.
Yakub then filed a Review Petition seeking review of Supreme Court’s judgment confirming his death sentence, which was rejected by a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice BS Chauhan on 30 July 2013. Yakub then filed a Writ Petition before the Supreme Court but the court rejected his application for oral hearing and dismissed his review petition by circulation. He then filed a Writ Petition before the Supreme Court as the issue of oral hearing of review petitions against death sentences was being heard by the apex court.
President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Memon’s petition for clemency on 11 April 2014 and thereafter, on 1 June 2014, the apex court imposed a stay on execution while Yakub’s plea for the hearing of review of death penalties in an open court rather than in chambers, was heard by a constitution bench of the Supreme Court. The stay on execution was then extended in December 2014. The open court hearing on his review petition began on 24 March 2015, which the court finally dismissed on 9 April 2015.
Thereupon, Yakub filed a curative petition, but that too, was rejected by the Supreme Court on 21 July 2015. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Government issued a death warrant setting 30 July 2015 as the date for Yakub’s execution. The latter then filed a mercy petition with the Governor of Maharashtra and then filed a Writ before the Supreme Court of India for a stay on his execution till the mercy petition was decided.
In spite of the pressure, the judiciary saw remarkable consistency and that speaks for its maturity. What more? In a first, the Supreme Court opened its doors in the middle of the night for the three-member bench to hear the last-ditch petition by Yakub on the eve of his hanging. The hearing started at 3.20 am and the verdict was announced around 4.50 am, just two hours before the scheduled hanging on 30 July!
Obviously, the court did hear a criminal’s plea till the very last. The judgment pronounced is honoured.

- See more at: http://www.elections.in/blog/yakub-memons-hanging-communalisation-polarised-public-opinion/#sthash.KnhsV2Cx.dpuf

Yakub Memon’s Hanging: Communalisation and Polarised Public Opinion

By Deepak Parvatiyar
August 1, 2015

5.00/5 (100.00%) 2 votes

In the early morning of 30 July – more than 22 years after the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai had claimed 257 innocent lives – one of the key masterminds Yakub Abdul Razak Memon was hanged to death at the Nagpur Central Jail.

Two dreaded masterminds of the Bombay bombings (Mumbai was still Bombay then) – Dawood Ibrahim and Yakub’s elder brother ‘Tiger’ Memon – are still absconding. The Indian government and the law enforcing agencies have failed miserably in bringing them to book. All the key perpetrators had fled to Pakistan with the support of Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI.

Mystery Over Yakub Memon’s Arrest

In fact, Yakub was the only big catch that the Indian intelligence agencies could manage. However, the truth behind his arrest is still shrouded in mystery. Much ruckus has been made on whether he had voluntarily surrendered to the police in Nepal’s capital city Kathmandu on 28 July 1994 as he claimed, or he was arrested at New Delhi railway station on 5 August 1994, as claimed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

An article by late B. Raman (who was also the Research and Analysis Wing’s head of the counter-terrorism division) that was published by rediff.com two years after his death, claimed that Yakub was “informally” picked up in Kathmandu with the help of the Nepal police “on suspicion”. Thereafter, he was “driven across Nepal to a town in Indian territory, flown to Delhi by an aircraft of the Aviation Research Centre and formally arrested in Old Delhi by the investigating authorities and taken into custody for interrogation.” Raman wrote that “The entire operation was coordinated by me”.
Yakub was arrested with a briefcase that contained a recording (made on 19 May 1994 in Karachi) of a conversation between him and his brothers – ‘Tiger’ and Ayub – and a Karachi-based smuggler Taufiq Siddique Jaliawala. Taufiq was the main link between Pakistan’s ISI, Tiger Memon and another Pakistani smuggler Syed Arif who had helped the ISI in the bomb blasts conspiracy. In the tape, they discussed about Dawood, ISI and also whether it was safe to go to Dubai!
Raman wrote that there was “not an iota of doubt” about the involvement of Yakub who would have “deserved the death penalty if one only took into consideration his conduct and role before July 1994”.

Controversy Over Yakub Memon’s Hanging

Yet, what sparked a row was Raman’s assertion that “there is a strong case for having second thoughts about the suitability of the death penalty in the subsequent stages of the case…if one also takes into consideration his conduct and role after he was informally picked up in Kathmandu”.
Raman went on to express that he was “disturbed” because of the fact that “some mitigating circumstances in the case of Yakub Memon and some other members of the family were probably not brought to the notice of the court by the prosecution…in their eagerness to obtain the death penalty…”
A certain tangent has been given to Raman’s observation. As recently as 26 July, Muslim groups Jamiat Ulema-E-Hind, Jamaat-E-Islami, and Ulema Council shared a platform along with the Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi in Mumbai to make a plea against Yakub’s hanging –“ Everyone knows Yakub surrendered. Raman is the most prominent officer in this case. We only say that an innocent person should get justice”.
The irrepressible retired Supreme Court judge, Markandey Katju, went on to claim that the evidence against Yakub was “very weak” to prove him guilty. Former Supreme Court judge, Justice Harjit Singh Bedi, on his part wanted the SC to take suo motu cognizance of Raman’s statement. He stated that he was “in principle against the imposition of death penalty….(even though) I have often upheld death penalties”.

Communalisation of Yakub Memon’s Death Sentence

With a right wing government at the Centre, the issue even took a communal hue, ominously, even signaling an suspecting finger on the very judiciary! The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi went on to claim that Yakub was being hanged “because he’s a Muslim”. Bollywood star Salman Khan – himself on bail in a hit-and-run case – went on to tweet for Yakub only to later delete it and apologise.
In fact, there were many prominent personalities including judges, lawyers, journalists (largely left wing and ‘secular’) politicians who, too, had petitioned the President to reconsider Yakub’s mercy plea. They did have their arguments not because of Yakub’s culpability but because of other corresponding facts. While one such petition pleaded that “Yakub Memon was not given advance notice of the death warrant hearing and as a result of which he and his lawyers could not participate and contest the issuance of the death warrant…”, Owaisi argued that Yakub did not have the backing of any political party unlike the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh in Tamil Nadu and Punjab. “Which political party is backing Yakub Memon? Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab has gone to the extent of pardoning Balwant Singh Rajoana,” he went on to state.
Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi, too, echoed the same as he pointed out that the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh were yet to be hanged. Some even sought to refer to the Justice BN Srikrishna Commission report on the Mumbai riots and blasts in the mid-90s. The report had held certain Shiv Sena leaders responsible for the riots but it was not accepted by the then government.

How Did the Yakub Memon’s Case Proceed?

In light of these arguments, let’s have a quick look at the case as it proceeded against Yakub. It was on 27 July 2007 that Justice P. D. Kode of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court awarded death sentence to Yakub for criminal conspiracy and pronounced life imprisonment to him for aiding and abetting and facilitating in a terrorist act; rigorous imprisonment for 14 years for illegal possession and transportation of arms and ammunition; and rigorous imprisonment for 10 years for possessing explosives with an intent to endanger lives.
Thereafter, the Supreme Court, following an appeal by Yakub, too, confirmed his conviction and awarded death sentence on 21 March 2013 for conspiracy through financing the attacks. The judges then went on to call Yakub the “mastermind” and “driving force” behind the bombings.
Yakub then filed a Review Petition seeking review of Supreme Court’s judgment confirming his death sentence, which was rejected by a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice BS Chauhan on 30 July 2013. Yakub then filed a Writ Petition before the Supreme Court but the court rejected his application for oral hearing and dismissed his review petition by circulation. He then filed a Writ Petition before the Supreme Court as the issue of oral hearing of review petitions against death sentences was being heard by the apex court.
President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Memon’s petition for clemency on 11 April 2014 and thereafter, on 1 June 2014, the apex court imposed a stay on execution while Yakub’s plea for the hearing of review of death penalties in an open court rather than in chambers, was heard by a constitution bench of the Supreme Court. The stay on execution was then extended in December 2014. The open court hearing on his review petition began on 24 March 2015, which the court finally dismissed on 9 April 2015.
Thereupon, Yakub filed a curative petition, but that too, was rejected by the Supreme Court on 21 July 2015. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Government issued a death warrant setting 30 July 2015 as the date for Yakub’s execution. The latter then filed a mercy petition with the Governor of Maharashtra and then filed a Writ before the Supreme Court of India for a stay on his execution till the mercy petition was decided.
In spite of the pressure, the judiciary saw remarkable consistency and that speaks for its maturity. What more? In a first, the Supreme Court opened its doors in the middle of the night for the three-member bench to hear the last-ditch petition by Yakub on the eve of his hanging. The hearing started at 3.20 am and the verdict was announced around 4.50 am, just two hours before the scheduled hanging on 30 July!
Obviously, the court did hear a criminal’s plea till the very last. The judgment pronounced is honoured.

- See more at: http://www.elections.in/blog/yakub-memons-hanging-communalisation-polarised-public-opinion/#sthash.KnhsV2Cx.dpuf