On Wednesday, President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Yakub Memon’s clemency plea. But the chartered accountant accused of being one of the masterminds of the 1993 serial blasts that rocked Mumbai in the aftermath of a pogrom against Muslims still has a couple of options to save him from the noose.
The only one of the 35 men accused of masterminding the terror strikes who has been arrested, Memon had surrendered to the authorities in 1994, claiming that he was innocent. Last March, the Supreme Court decided to uphold the death sentence awarded to Memon by a special court in 2007. Even though the prosecution was unable to establish that Memon had played a direct role in the blasts, it said that he was one of the “driving spirits” behind India’s first modern terrorist attack.
On the face of it, Memon could easily share the fate of Afzal Guru, who was executed in 2013 for being part of the conspiracy to attack in the Indian parliament in 2001, and Ajmal Kasab, who was hanged in 2012 for participating in the 2008 terror strikes on several targets across south Mumbai.
Afzal Guru was informed of his impending death at 5 am on February 9, 2013, and within two hours, was whisked away to the gallows. Three months earlier, on November 21, 2012, Kasab was hanged. Both executions were in violation of the Jail Manual, which requires the jail superintendent to inform the convict and his family about the date of execution. Sushil Kumar Shinde, who was then home minister, said that the secrecy was necessary to pre-empt the convicts from moving the Supreme Court against the dismissal of the clemency pleas.
It was clear that these actions had been motivated by political expediency. The Congress government at the Centre sought to steal a march over the Bharatiya Janata Party by demonstrating that it was being tough on terror (and terrorists) by illegally hanging Afzal Guru. In Maharashtra, Kasab was executed within four days of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s death. The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party coalition used the Pakistani in its game of one-upmanship against the Shiv Sena and the BJP.
However, since those hangings, two judgements have been emerged that could provide Memon some protection from arbitrary execution. With the assembly elections due in Maharashtra in a little over five months and prompted by the thorough drubbing it received at the hands of the Sena-BJP combine in the recently concluded general polls, the Congress government is likely to want to whip up as much political support it can. Hanging Memon expediently could perhaps strengthen the Congress-NCP coalition’s position against its arch-rival.
One judgement came in the case of Shatrughan Chauhan, dated January 21, in which the court made it incumbent upon the government to provide sufficient opportunity to death-row convicts to mentally prepare themselves even after their mercy pleas have been rejected, and if they so wish, to move court in a final attempt to stay alive. This judgement leaves no scope for the illegal haste and secrecy that was used against Kasab and Afzal.
The other bulwark is provided by Sriharan. On February 18, while hearing the pleas of those sentenced to death for killing former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, the court said that in so far as the treatment of death-row prisoners was concerned, it was illegal to make any distinction between those sentenced for terrorist acts and prisoners convicted of other crimes under the Indian Penal Code.
Yakub Memon has the law on his side. The authorities have the opportunity to absolve themselves of their previous travesties.
The only one of the 35 men accused of masterminding the terror strikes who has been arrested, Memon had surrendered to the authorities in 1994, claiming that he was innocent. Last March, the Supreme Court decided to uphold the death sentence awarded to Memon by a special court in 2007. Even though the prosecution was unable to establish that Memon had played a direct role in the blasts, it said that he was one of the “driving spirits” behind India’s first modern terrorist attack.
On the face of it, Memon could easily share the fate of Afzal Guru, who was executed in 2013 for being part of the conspiracy to attack in the Indian parliament in 2001, and Ajmal Kasab, who was hanged in 2012 for participating in the 2008 terror strikes on several targets across south Mumbai.
Afzal Guru was informed of his impending death at 5 am on February 9, 2013, and within two hours, was whisked away to the gallows. Three months earlier, on November 21, 2012, Kasab was hanged. Both executions were in violation of the Jail Manual, which requires the jail superintendent to inform the convict and his family about the date of execution. Sushil Kumar Shinde, who was then home minister, said that the secrecy was necessary to pre-empt the convicts from moving the Supreme Court against the dismissal of the clemency pleas.
It was clear that these actions had been motivated by political expediency. The Congress government at the Centre sought to steal a march over the Bharatiya Janata Party by demonstrating that it was being tough on terror (and terrorists) by illegally hanging Afzal Guru. In Maharashtra, Kasab was executed within four days of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s death. The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party coalition used the Pakistani in its game of one-upmanship against the Shiv Sena and the BJP.
However, since those hangings, two judgements have been emerged that could provide Memon some protection from arbitrary execution. With the assembly elections due in Maharashtra in a little over five months and prompted by the thorough drubbing it received at the hands of the Sena-BJP combine in the recently concluded general polls, the Congress government is likely to want to whip up as much political support it can. Hanging Memon expediently could perhaps strengthen the Congress-NCP coalition’s position against its arch-rival.
One judgement came in the case of Shatrughan Chauhan, dated January 21, in which the court made it incumbent upon the government to provide sufficient opportunity to death-row convicts to mentally prepare themselves even after their mercy pleas have been rejected, and if they so wish, to move court in a final attempt to stay alive. This judgement leaves no scope for the illegal haste and secrecy that was used against Kasab and Afzal.
The other bulwark is provided by Sriharan. On February 18, while hearing the pleas of those sentenced to death for killing former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, the court said that in so far as the treatment of death-row prisoners was concerned, it was illegal to make any distinction between those sentenced for terrorist acts and prisoners convicted of other crimes under the Indian Penal Code.
Yakub Memon has the law on his side. The authorities have the opportunity to absolve themselves of their previous travesties.
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