Yaqub Memon’s ‘strong role’ paved way for ten men in commutation of their death sentences

By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net,

Every coin has two sides and visibly these sides will always remain completely contrasting to each other. Incidentally this standard applies to Yaqub Memon’s ‘strong involvement’ in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, upholding of his death sentence by Supreme Court and his subsequent hanging.


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One side of his strong role played in the serial blasts is that he earned death penalty and was hanged in Nagpur prison on July 30 this year; the other contrasting side is that his same purported strong role helped other 10 men in the case who were also sentenced to death by TADA court in commutation of their sentences by Supreme Court.

The first side of Memon’s strong role proved him a ‘Terrorist’ and became reason for his execution but the other side of his same role proved a pivotal criterion for Supreme Court to distinguish the quantity of punishment to the convicts and there by converting death sentence of remaining ten into life imprisonment.

On March 12, 1993, the commercial hub of the country witnessed an unprecedented terrorist act sending shock waves throughout the world. In a span of about two hours i.e., between 13:33 to 15:40 hours, a series of 12 bomb explosions took place one after the other at the following twelve places in Mumbai.

The investigation began and CBI arrested 123 accused including Yaqub Memon and tried them before a special TADA court in Mumbai.

On July 27, 2007 the TADA Court Judge P D Kode convicted 100 accused; 12 of them were sentenced death penalty. One of these 12 died in the prison before his appeal could be heard by Supreme Court.

The remaining 11 appealed before Supreme Court against their conviction by TADA court. These 11 were – Yaqub Memon, Kasam Ghansar, Asgar Yusuf Mukadam, Abdul Gani Ismail Turk , Parvez Nazir Ahmed Shaikh, Mohd. Farooq Mohammed Yusuf, Shahnawaz Abdul Kadar Qureshi, Zakir Hussain Noor Mohd. Shaikh, Abdul Khan @ Yakub Khan Akhtar, Firoz @ Akram Amani Malik and Mohammed Mushtaq Moosa Tarani.

All these had played active role in orchestrating blasts and the main charge due to which they were sentenced to death by TADA court was that all had planted bombs.

No one would have ever imagined that bomb planters of such a huge devastation would be shown leniency by the Supreme Court but it did so as it had to discriminate Yaqub Memon and other masterminds of the blasts from other convicts who merely acted without full knowledge of the conspiracy.

On March 21, 2013 Justice P Sathashivam and Justice B S Chauhan of Supreme Court found only Yaqub Memon as deserving to go to the gallows and commuted death penalty of 10 other into life imprisonment.

While providing reasoning in commuting death sentences of 10 convicts the two judge bench said, “If we say it in a metaphoric style, Yaqub Memon and all the absconding accused were the archers whereas rest of the appellants were the arrows in their hands.”

On the same line if one thinks of the case of 26/11 carnage where Ajmal Kasab was sentenced to death by Supreme Court one can imagine the gravity of crime committed by Kasab would have been lowered if his masters in Pakistan would have been tried along with him. He too was only one of the arrows but to see him as arrow detailed role of his archers was not before the Supreme Court.

Further, the reasoning of the Apex Court continued and it said, “They were the architects of the blasts, without whom the plan would have never seen the daylight”, adding at another place, “… it is not hyperbole to state that, Yaqub Memon was one of the ‘driving spirit’ behind the plan of the 1993 blasts, whereas the other appellants played a far lesser role and thus a lesser contribution to the crimes resulting from this plan.”

One can easily make out from above reasoning of the Supreme Court that if it would not have been for Yaqub Memon’s role in the mind of the Supreme Court, perhaps role of bomb planters would have appeared to the court as the chief reason for the deaths of scores of people in 1993 blasts, similar to what it perceived in Kasab’s case.

Supreme Court judged Yaqub Memon and other absconding as the real conspirators and agreed that they were the men who hatched the plan and, “the other 10 appellants were mere subservient subordinates whose knowledge and acquaintance might have been restricted to their counterparts”.

Even if it was cautious in commuting their sentences, it specified clearly, “This may not help in complete exoneration of the liability of these 10 appellants but the degree of punishment must necessarily reflect this difference. It is vital to remember that ‘but for’ the masterminds, this blast should have never seen the daylight.”

After explaining interpretation minutely, Supreme Court declared,”…it can safely be concluded that no offence might have taken place at all but for the instigation by the absconding accused and Yaqub memon”.

Accordingly, it proclaimed, to differentiate the degree of punishment to Yaqub Memon and other 10 appellants, we contemplate that the ends of justice would be served if the death sentence of these ten appellants be commuted to imprisonment for life”.

There remains no doubt it was because of Yaqub Memon’s strong role in the case which was before the eyes of Supreme Court that helped other 10 convicts to live even after hanging of him.

As said earlier, Yaqub Memon’s involvement in the case and his joint trial with other accused proved life surviving, especially for the 10 who were in the same line of death penalty as that of him. If not publicly, but in private these 10 men surely must have supplicated for Yaqub Memon “Rest In Peace…RIP” when he was executed on the morning of July 30, 2015.

Related:

Case was watertight for Yakub to expect any clemency from all quarters

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