File picture of Yakub Memon.
As he waited for the Supreme Court to decide whether he would hang as scheduled today, Yakub Memon, convicted as a terrorist, reportedly told a guard in the Nagpur jail, "My hanging has been politicised. I know that I am going to die. Only miracle can save me."
The report on
mid-day.com says that Memon's remarks were made on Wednesday when the country's top court was deciding whether his death penalty had been correctly upheld by its judges. Later at night, in an unprecedented hearing which saw the Supreme Court being opened up, three judges said Memon had been offered enough time and opportunity to challenge his sentencing, and that a last-minute petition by activists and lawyers was not valid.
That plea said that Memon's mercy petition had been rejected too quickly by President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday, just hours after it was filed by the death row prisoner. But the Supreme Court agreed with the government, which said that Memon's brother had filed a mercy plea last year, which had been rejected by the President. That appeal could not be overlooked, said the judges. Their decision meant that a 14-day waiting period between the rejection of a clemency appeal and the execution was not needed for Memon.
He was hanged this morning at the jail in Nagpur on his 53rd birthday; hours before he died, relatives had a cake sent to him through prison officials.
In 2007, Memon was convicted for financing the serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993. 12 bombs at different city landmarks killed 257 people, and injured nearly 700. Memon had left Mumbai just before the terror attack with his family. He was brought to a Mumbai court to face trial a year later. His lawyers claimed he had surrendered to cooperate with investigators, who said Memon had been arrested. They have, in recent weeks, also denied some reports that Memon was offered a secret plea bargain in exchange for coming back to India and offering key evidence.
His brother, Tiger Memon, and Dawood Ibrahim, both underworld dons and the masterminds of the attack, remain missing.