President gets plea for Yakub's reprieve

People from diverse fields on Sunday urged President Pranab Mukherjee to grant Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon a reprieve from execution, including  Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Shatrughan Sinha.

Memon is scheduled to be hanged on Thursday according to the execution warrant issued by the court. In their 15-page petition to the President, around 300 signatories which include several eminent persons, say  “substantive and fresh grounds” could be considered to grant reprieve.

The petition came amid a debate over Memon’s hanging and the ruling BJP condemning remarks opposing the execution, saying such a defence was a result of “petty politics.”

Sinha, who on Saturday met and praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has apparently gone against the party’s stand that the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Memon issue should be respected.

“We most humbly request your Excellency to consider the case of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon and spare him from the noose of death for a crime master-minded by someone else to communally divide the country. Grant of mercy in this case will send out a message, that while this country will not tolerate acts of terrorism, as a nation we are committed to equal application of mercy and values of forgiveness, and justice. Bloodletting and human sacrifice will not make this country a safer place; it will, however, degrade us all,” the signatories said.

Beside Sinha and expelled BJP MP Jethmalani, those, who have signed the petition included MPs like Mani Shankar Aiyar (Congress), Majeed Memon (NCP), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), K T S Tulsi and H K Dua (nominated) and T Siva (DMK), former CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI(ML)-Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Brinda Karat (CPI-M) and filmmakers and actors Naseeruddin Shah and Mahesh Bhatt, M K Raina and Tushar Gandhi.

It also included various academicians, members of the legal fraternity, activists and retired judges.

Justices Panachand Jain, H S Bedi, P B Sawant, H Suresh, K P Siva Subramaniam, S N Bhargava, K Chandru, and Nagmohan Das, noted lawyer Indira Jaising.

Others included academicians like Irfan Habib, Arjun Dev, D N Jha, and social activists Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze and John Dayal.

The signatories said there are some very "disturbing" aspects of the Yakub case which make the award of death sentence "grossly unfair, arbitrary and excessive.