Prez rejects Yakub's fresh mercy petition, SC clears legal

Barring any last-minute reprieve, Yakub Memon, the lone death row convict in 1993 Mumbai blasts case, will be hanged tomorrow with President Pranab Mukherjee tonight rejecting his fresh mercy plea on advice of government and the Supreme Court earlier clearing all legal hurdles.
In a late night development, Yakub's lawyers made another last ditch attempt to save him from the gallows when they moved the Supreme Court seeking stay of his hanging.
The petition pleaded that an order be passed that authorities should give Yakub at least 14 days time for execution after the rejection of his mercy petition as per the apex court's guidelines.

Memon's hanging is scheduled for 7 am in Nagpur Central Prison on his 53rd birthday as per the TADA court's order even as prison sources said preparations were completed to carry out the execution amid tight security.
As suspense mounted on a day of fast paced developments on the fate of the chartered accountant and his lawyers making last ditch attempts to get a reprieve, President Mukherjee's decision came after he held consultations with Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
The confabulations at Rashtrapati Bhavan lasted over two hours after which the President took the decision to reject the petition that was filed by Yakub. Home Secretary L C Goyal and Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar also joined in the discussions.

In Mumbai, Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao also rejected Memon's mercy plea filed last week.

Holding that there was "no legal fallacy" and "fault" in the death warrant issued against Yakub in the blasts that killed 257 people and injured hundreds, the apex court said his last legal remedy by way of curative petition was "correctly" dismissed by the three senior-most judges.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra held that his second mercy petition will not come in way of his execution tomorrow as he did not challenge the rejection of his first mercy petition by the President last year.

While clearing the decks by holding that the condemned prisoner has availed all legal remdies, the bench, also comprising Justices Prafulla Chandra Pant and Amitava Roy, rejected the plea that proper procedure was not followed in issuance of death warrant by TADA Court on April 30 for his execution on July 30.
Further, the bench differed with his counsel that mandatory 14 days notice was not given by Maharashtra Government in communicating to him about his date of execution.
"Issuance of death warrant is in order. We do not find any kind of legal fallacy.In view of that, we conclude that the curative petition was decided by three senior-most judges of this court cannot be faulted," it said.