Security Tightened at Nagpur Central Jail

Nagpur:  Moments after the Supreme Court rejected Yakub Memon’s final petition to stop his execution on grounds of a last-minute mercy plea, security was tightened at the Nagpur Central Jail. Yakub Memon was hanged in the jail a little before 7 am today.

A quick response team was also deployed outside Yakub Memon’s home in Mumbai’s Mahim area.

Memon’s last minute petition to stop his hanging was rejected by the Supreme Court, which opened at 3 am and held an unprecedented middle-of-the-night hearing.

After 90 minutes of arguments, the three Supreme Court judges who had rejected Memon’s petition earlier in the day accepted the government’s argument that the convict had “ample opportunity” to challenge his sentencing.

Memon was sentenced to death for helping plan the deadly blasts across Mumbai in 1993, in which 257 people were killed. Of the 11 sentenced to death for the terror attack, Yakub was the only convict not granted mercy.

Yakub’s brother Suleiman and cousin Usman have been staying at a hotel in Nagpur.

A little after 2 am last night, a police constable delivered a letter to Suleiman at the hotel. It was speculated that it was a formal intimation to Memon’s family that he would be hanged in the morning.