Update at 8.30 AM
- Memon offered prayers at 5.30 AM. Memon was hanged at 6.35 a.m. and a medical team pronounced him dead a short while later at 7.01 AM
- His body was sent for an autopsy by a team from a Nagpur hospital before being cleared for the last rites.
- According to present indications, the body will be handed over to the family with conditions, like no procession etc. after the autopsy is received
- Authorities keeping a a close eye on social media, worried about a backlash.
- Security tight in all cities especially in Mumbai and Nagpur
Earlier Report
New Delhi: Yakub Memon was hanged in a Nagpur Prison early this morning after the Supreme Court in an unprecendented early morning hearing rejected a last minute petition by him. In the order, the bench said the execution was “inevitable” after rejection of the mercy petitions.
“The President rejected after due consideration of all relevant facts… 22 yeras have passed since the incident… there is no error in judgments passed by this court,” Justice Misra said, dismissing Memon’s last appeal before the Supreme CourtTop lawyers, including Yakub Memon’s counsel, urged CJI for an urgent hearing ahead of his Thursday morning hanging. CJI agreed to hear the last-minute plea and formed a three-member bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra After hearing both sides, Justice Dipak Misra dictated his judgment for quite some time. Finally, at around 5am the three-judge bench pronounced its verdict rejecting Yakub Memon’s last-minute mercy plea.
At 10 minutes to 5 a.m., hardly a couple of hours before his execution, the Bench held that Memon had enjoyed “ample opportunities” before the apex court, filed an abundance of petitions and any further leeway to him would be a “travesty of justice”. Justice Misra, who led the Bench comprising of Justices Prafulla C. Pant and Amitava Roy, asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi whether Memon’s family was allowed to meet him.
“They are there now,” Mr. Rohatgi said.
The AG said the Maharashtra Governor rejected Memon’s mercy plea at 4.30 p.m. on Wednesday. The President received his mercy plea at the Secretariat at 2 p.m. and rejected it at 10 p.m. “He was informed of both rejections,” Mr. Rohatgi submitted.At 3:17 a.m. on the day of his execution, Yakub Memon woke up the Supreme Court to hear him for one last time in an unprecedented early morning hearing in the highest court’s long history. Yakub Memon through his lawyer told the assembled Bench that he accepts himself as a condemned man, but only wanted to live for another 14 days so that he “could make his peace with God and settle his earthly affairs before leaving this world.”
Hours after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Yakub Memon’s mercy plea, top lawyers gathered at the residence of Chief Justice of India. At a quarter to 2 a.m., the CJI decided to let the Bench headed by Justice Misra to hear the matter. It had only been a few hours since the same Bench dismissed Memon’s plea to stay his execution on his birthday.
Outside Justice Misra’s residence, the lawyers were told to go to the Supreme Court where the matter would be heard in open court at 2.30 am. In Court 4, lights were switched on as security personnel sounded the red alert inside the Supreme Court complex and a heavy posse cordoned off the area from outside.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi was also summoned, after which the hearing started with senior advocate Anand Grover supported by other advocates such as Prashant Bhushan, Yug Choudhry, and Brinda Grover saying they have sought the reprieve of 14 days as a “substantive right”. Mr. Choudhary asked why the “government is hell bent on executing him today.”
When his turn came, AG countered that Memon was “simply abusing the system” by knocking on the Supreme Court’s doors again and again. “Judicial process got over at 4.30 pm today, but here we are again. Repeated mercy petitions will be filed and there will be repeated petitions for 14 days reprieve,” AG argued.
He said the first mercy petition in the case was dismissed on April 11, 2014 and Memon had sufficient notice of 16 months before his execution. He said Memon was served the death warrant 17 days prior to his execution, whereas the minimum requirement is only 14 days.
Yakub Memon’s body is likely to be handed over to his relatives for burial. Security is tight in Mumbai and Nagpur where Yakub Memon was hangedM
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