Mumbai, July 21
Once named as the best chartered accountant by the Memon community,
Yaqub Abdul Razzak Memon, the most high-profile convict in the March
1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, will hang for acts of terror and mayhem
after the Supreme Court rejected his curative plea on Tuesday.
The
brother of Ibrahim alias Tiger Memon, the chief conspirator of the 13
blasts which hit the country's commercial capital that afternoon of
March 12, 1993, Yakub Memon, 53, is lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail
and will be the first and only accused in the case to go the gallows.
As
per indications, the state government has given the go-ahead to hang
him inside the jail premises on July 30 - closing a chapter 23 years
after the terror attacks permanently scarred Mumbai.
Tiger, 52,
is considered to be a close aide of the absconder mafia don Dawood
Ibrahim Kaskar, and both are declared "wanted absconders" in the same
case.
Yakub, the third of six sons of the Abdul Razzak Memon,
turned out to be most highly-educated in the Memon family. He studied in
an English medium school, later acquired a B.Com degree and then
qualified as a chartered accountant in 1990.
A year later, he set
up "Mehta & Memon Associates" along with a childhood friend Chetan
Mehta. A year later, they parted ways and Memon set up his independent
firm, "AR & Sons", in memory of his father.
This firm proved so successful that he was conferred the Best CA Award by the Memon community in Mumbai.
He
diversified into exports and set up a company, Tejrath International,
to export meat and meat products to the Gulf and Middle East.
In a
very short period, Memon became a financial success and invested in six
flats in the Al-Hussaini Building in Mahim, close to the famous Mahim
Dargah.
The accused No. 1 in the Mumbai serial blasts, Menom's
role was proved for being part of the conspiracy, financing the
operation through a co-accused Mulchand Shah and his firms, arranging
air tickets to fly to Dubai and then Pakistan for six other accused in
the case.
He has also been found guilty of purchasing vehicles
which were used in the blasts and possessing arms and ammunitions, thus
leading to his conviction under various sections of the Indian Penal
Code, the TADA Act, Explosive Substances Act, and other laws.
On
July 27, 2007, Memon was first awarded the death sentence by then
Special Judge P. D. Kode of the Special TADA Court in Mumbai.
The
ruling was subsequently upheld by the Bombay High Court, then a Supreme
Court bench headed by the then Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan on
March 21, 2013.
On April 9 this year, a three-member bench headed
by Justice A. R. Dave had rejected a review plea filed by Memon against
the death sentence.
Meanwhile, President Pranab Mukherjee has
also rejected his clemency petition, following which he filed a curative
petition, which was rejected on Tuesday by the Supreme Court, clearing
the way for his death sentence.
