Don't play communal politics over Yakub Memon issue: Sena

Amid reports that 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon, who is on death row, will be hanged this month-end, Shiv Sena today said political parties should refrain from playing communal politics over this sensitive issue.
"Yakub Memon has been tried and convicted by the trial court and his mercy petition has been rejected by the President of India," Shiv Sena spokesperson and MLC Dr Neelam Gorhe told reporters at Vidhan Bhavan here.
"Political parties and people should not indulge in partisan and communal politics over such a sensitive issue. The 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts resulted in many people losing their lives and getting permanently injured. Many families were destroyed due to the blasts," she said.

The Sena legislator said the Centre and the state government will take appropriate decision on the issue in accordance with the provisions of the law.
"Stringent punishment should be meted out to those who commit such heinous crimes," she said.
Replying to Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi's remark in which he said why Memon's execution date was being announced through media when there was so much secrecy over date of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru's hanging, Gorhe said, "The allegation that Maharashtra government was trying to resort to some marketing in this case is completely wrong."

However, Yuva Sena president Aditya Thackeray, who came to meet Minister for School Education Vinod Tawde at the Vidhan Bhavan today, denied to comment on the issue.

Media reports said the execution will take place if Memon's plea is rejected by the Supreme Court, after his appeals against the death sentence were rejected by the apex court and by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Memon is lodged in Nagpur Central Jail, which reportedly has facility to carry out capital punishment.
According to a senior prison official, any decision on the date of hanging will depend on the outcome of the curative petition in SC.
Memon, a key conspirator with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, is one of ten convicts awarded death penalty by a special TADA court.

His death sentence was upheld by a Supreme Court bench on March 21, 2013.