Lawyer moves Supreme Court to stay execution

NEW DELHI: Yakub Memon on Thursday moved the Supreme Court to stay the execution of his death sentence scheduled for July 30 on the ground that the special TADA court had ordered the warrants in violation of the top court’s guidelines.

Memon, the lone death-row convict in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, said the Mumbai court on April 30 issued the warrants at a time when he was yet to exhaust his legal options after the Supreme Court had dismissed his review petition on April 9 against the original verdict upholding the death sentence.

Memon was yet to file his curative petition by then — it was only filed on May 22.

Memon also said the execution should be stopped in the wake of a fresh clemency petition personally filed by him before the Maharashtra governor. Last year, the President had rejected a mercy plea filed by Memon’s brother.

In his petition, Memon has given a sequence of events to show how Nagpur jail authorities violated guidelines.

According to him, the Supreme Court has categorically laid down that a death warrant should not be issued until all legal and executive remedies have been exhausted by a convict sentenced to death.

While Memon informed jail authorities on May 22 that he had filed a curative petition in the apex court, he was told on July 14 that in compliance of the Supreme Court order, he would be executed on July 30.

This was done even before the top court decided on the petition.

Memon further contended that the Maharashtra government was aware of his curative petition when it issued directions to hang him.