By Mahuya Santra
The hanging of Yakub Memon sparked many debates. With the arguments over the death penalty, India got engaged with fresh point of debate whether Yakub Menon who surrendered voluntarily through negotiation and provided crucial evidence to the authority should deserve the gallows ethically? A section of analysts described it as the “miscarriage of justice”.
Debate started within the political parties also. Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab both were executed when Congress was in power. So in case of Yakub Memon Congress was not sure which stand they should take. They viewed it a “conclusion of a judicial process” in the Supreme Court’s decision noting that full justice would be done to Mumbai blast victims when the government would be able to nab the absconders like Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim.
The same happened with left parties. In 2004 Left Front argued in favour of the execution of Dhananjay Chattopadhyay, convicted for raping a teenage girl in Kolkata. In 2015, those left parties vehemently opposed Yakub Memon’s hanging.
Asaduddin Owaisi, the AIMIM Chief alleged that Memon was hanged only because he belonged to a particular religion. BJP described all these protests as an attempt to have politicized the whole issue or of giving it a communal colour.
Yakub Abdul Rezak Memon was executed at Nagpur Central Prison at around 7am on 30th July, 2015. At 5 am the Supreme Court rejected his last- ditch attempt for a stay on death warrant after an unprecedented middle –of-the night hearing. Yakub Memon, 53, was the lone convict who was awarded the death penalty in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts in which 257 persons were killed and 713 persons were injured. His brother Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim who allegedly masterminded the blasts are still remaining absconded in the eye of Indian law.
Yakub was executed on his birthday and a day before his daughter Zubaida was to turn 22.
History not only repeats itself, sometimes takes revenge also.
