Tight security arrangements were made in and around Nagpur and many other parts of Maharashtra in the wake of Yakub’s execution. Section 144 was imposed. Yakub’s family members met him before the execution last night. The body will be handed over to his family and will be brought to Mumbai for funeral.
Last night, advisories were sent to all states to stay alert to prevent any untoward incident. Earlier yesterday, the Supreme Court had rejected Memon’s plea on curative petition and death warrant. All his arguments were rejected. Later, Maharashtra Governor had also rejected his mercy plea.
At around 10:45 PM last night, his final effort fell through when President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his second mercy petition, which was filed yesterday only. The decision was taken after a four-hour-long meeting between the President and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Home Secretary and Solicitor General were present at the meeting.
But, at around 11 PM, senior lawyers Prashant Bhushan, Indira Jaising, Anand Grover, Vrinda Grover, Nitya Ramkrishnan, Yug Choudhury and Raju Ramachandran tried to delay the execution and persuaded CJI HL Dattu to order a special session of the Supreme Court to hear the case. The CJI took the unprecedented decision to arrange the overnight hearing of the case in Supreme Court.
Memon’s lawyer Anand Grover sought to invoke Article 21 to seek a 14-day stay on the execution on humanitarian ground and added that they needed time to understand the reasons behind the rejection of Yakub’s mercy petition. However, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi termed the development as an attempt to abuse the system and delay the hanging for long.
Justice Dipak Mishra, Justice Prafulla Chandra Pant and Justice Amitava Roy, who started hearing at 3:20 AM, delivered the verdict at 4:55 AM, saying no new information was provided by Memon’s lawyers. While delivering the verdict, Justice Dipak Mishra took the 2014 mercy petition (which was rejected by the President) into account and said that Yakub was given ample opportunity to present his case. That sealed his fate.