By TCN News,
Washington: Calling it as a “sad day for justice in India”, the Association of Indian Muslims in America (AIM) has said, even the Supreme Court applied a different criteria to a plea in connection with the decision of hanging Yakub Memon, the lone convict for the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai.
Memon was hanged till death on Thursday in Nagpur in central India and later buried at Mumbai, his hometown.
“Today, even the Supreme Court that most people of India have come to trust for ultimate justice and that has frequently ruled in favor of giving justice to the smallest and most powerless Indian, applied a different criteria in punishing violent culprits in the case of Yakub Memon than what it has done in recent past e.g. the killers of late PM Rajiv Gandhi,” Kaleem Kawaja of the AIM said in a press release.
“The Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of Rajiv Gandhi’s convicted killers but refused to grant the same clemency to Yakub Memon, even though he had turned state witness and had returned to India voluntarily from abroad,” he said.
Additionally, the convicted killers of the 2002 Gujarat genocide have been granted bail and the Supreme Court is not taking any action to at least put them back in jail if not give them death sentence. Many other terrorists and killers of Muslims are in jail but their cases are not progressing. This is denial of justice in a land that claims the hallowed legacy of justice and fair play that the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, proclaimed loud and clear, the release said.
“In this dark hour, it is a matter of great satisfaction that so many Hindus including many luminaries and other highly distinguished Hindu citizens spoke up and asked the Supreme Court and the President to grant clemency to Yakub Memon and commute his death sentence. Indian Muslims must build bonds of friendship with these justice oriented Hindus and make common cause for justice in India and struggle for that. Despite today’s adverse news the Muslims of India continue to repose their faith in getting justice from the Supreme Court.”
“Today, it becomes the duty of all justice oriented Indians, especially the Muslim minorities, that they doggedly pursue all legal avenues to get justice at least in the Supreme Court and High Courts in states. Instead of lamenting and making emotional statements, they must organize and put an action plan in place and implement it,” Kawaja added in the release.