By IANS,
New Delhi: The Supreme Court was Wednesday told that Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, awarded death penalty in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts, should not be made to suffer for the misdeeds of his brother and main accused Tiger Memon.
The apex court bench of Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice B.S. Chauhan was told by Yakub Memon that “one (Tiger Memon) is a smuggler. I am a chartered accountant. I have charted my own course in life”. Tiger Memon is untraced since the blasts and is on the run.
Appearing for Yakub Memon, senior counsel Jaspal Singh told the court: “I am not a namazi (devout Muslim). He (Tiger Memon) is a namazi. I don’t know what kind of namazi he (Tiger Memon) is. His (actions) are entirely against Islam.”
The court was told this during the hearing of cross petitions by the Maharashtra government and the convict challenging the trial court verdict in the blasts in which 100 people were convicted, 12 of whom were awarded death sentence, 23 were acquitted and 44 were absconding, including Tiger Memon.
Distancing himself from the conduct of Tiger Memon, Yakub Memon told the court that the evidence of accused-turned-prosecution witness Md. Usman Ahmed Jan Khan could not be read against him as it was inconsistent.
The court was told that Khan had retracted his confessional statement and alleged that police tortured him and compelled him to make a statement against Yakub Memon.
While Jaspal Singh read through the confessional statement, Justice Sathasivam observed: “We have gone through examination in chief from page 23 to 91 (and) we did not find anything specific against you.”
Faulting the grant of pardon to Md. Usman Ahmed Jan Khan, the senior counsel told the court that there was no provision for the grant of pardon to an approver under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (repealed in i995).
Justice Chauhan said it could be done under Section 306 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The hearing would continue Thursday.