New Delhi: The Supreme Court today, rejected the review plea filed by death row convict Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, a key conspirator with Dawood Ibrahim in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. The apex court said Yakub, younger brother of Tiger Memon, was the mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts. The Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of 10 other accused to life imprisonment.
The court observed that the other 10 accused were mere ‘arrows in the hands of archers in the shape of Yakub, Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim’. The SC said though these 10 parked explosive laden vehicles at places in Mumbai, they were mere pawns and deserved life sentence.
The apex court severely criticized Pakistan for training and arming terrorists, who caused mayhem in Mumbai. SC said Pakistan’s ISI was singularly responsible for training the accused and equipping them to cause the bomb blasts in Mumbai.
The apex court awarded five years sentence to Yusuf Nulwala. The court allowed Samire Hingora to come out of prison as he had already served 6 and a half years, the sentence it imposed on him. A bench of Justice PS Sathasivam and BS Chauhan read out in one and a half hours the excerpts of the vouminous judgement.
President Pranab Mukherjee had also rejected Yakub’s mercy plea. The decision was taken by the President following recommendations of the Maharashtra government and the Home Ministry that the mercy petition of Yakub be rejected, a senior official had said.
As many as 257 people were killed and 713 injured in the serial blasts that rocked 12 locations in Mumbai on March 12, 1993. Property worth Rs 30 crore was damaged in the terror strike.
According to the CBI, fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim, along with Pakistant’s ISI, engineered the blasts, and Tiger Memon and his brother Ayub were the main conspirators.
In 2007, a trial court held 100 people guilty while 23 were acquitted. Twelve people were sentenced to death, 20 to life and 68 were given various prison terms. Three of the convicts — one sentenced to death and two to life-died during the pendency of the appeal in the apex court, which held day-to-day hearings for 10 months before reserving its verdict in August 2012.apex court later in June 2014 stayed his execution, pending decision on Memom’s review plea.
Bureau Report
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