Man hangs for 1993 Mumbai bombings

India has executed Yakub Memon, the man convicted of financing the deadly 1993 Mumbai bombings, the Maharashtra state government has confirmed. Almost two hours later, they decided that Memon had been given “ample opportunity” to challenge his death sentence, and that he had availed of all existing legal options.

He was hanged in Nagpur Central Jail on Thursday morning.

As Yakub’s death sentence divided public opinion, the issue stirred Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu to action after a battery of lawyers rushed to his residence after midnight with a petition for an urgent hearing.

A series of 13 explosions had rocked the country’s commercial capital on March 12, 1993, in which 257 people were killed and 713 injured, besides property worth Rs 27 crore was damaged.

Former Supreme Court judge Harjit Singh Bedi had also said reports that Memon co-operated with investigators and returned voluntarily from Pakistan, where he fled, should have been taken into account when hearing his appeal. A total of 100 people have been convicted of involvement in the blasts.

Others pointed out that his brother Tiger Memon was alleged to have masterminded the attacks, along with Mumbai gang boss Dawood Ibrahim.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty worldwide, have decried the hanging. Rohatgi said the whole exercise was an attempt to prolong Memon’s stay in jail and get the sentence commuted.

For the first time ever, judges of the Supreme Court had a court-room opened up in the middle of the night to hear the appeal.

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee had reportedly rejected Memon’s mercy plea late Wednesday, following which his lawyers moved the Supreme Court to request that Memon’s execution be postponed by 14 days.

Opposing Memon’s plea, attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi said his fresh petition amounted to “abusing” the system.

For almost a decade, India had an unofficial moratorium on executions.

The social media which recently went hysterical over Tharoor’s stirring speech at the Oxford University demanding reparation from the British for 200 years of colonial rule and oppression, is now attacking him for his tweets.

Executed a year later for his role in the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament.

Yakub’s brother Essa and sister-in-law Rubina are undergoing life imprisonment in the case for conspiracy and arranging finances and logistics for the terrorists who carried out the blasts. Calls for reprieve grew after a website last week released a 2007 article by intelligence official B Raman, who coordinated Memon’s arrest in 1994, and said the prosecution appeared to have failed to highlight mitigating circumstances in its eagerness to secure a death penalty.