Supreme Court stays death to 1993 blasts convict

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, a key conspirator with Dawood Ibrahim in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and the lone death row convict in the case. It referred to a Constitution Bench his petition that review pleas in death penalty cases be heard in open court and not in chambers.

A bench of Justices J.S. Kehar and C. Nagappan sought responses from Maharashtra, the law ministry and the Supreme Court registrar on Memon’s plea that his sentence be commuted to life term. “In the meantime, the execution will remain stayed,” the bench said.

Memon, who claims he is suffering from schizophrenia since 1996, says he has been behind bars for 20 years and that a convict cannot be given life imprisonment and the death penalty for the same offence.

Senior advocate Upamanyu Hazarika, appearing for Memon, said a similar plea by a death row convict in the 2000 Red Fort attack case, Mohammed Arif, had been referred to a five-judge constitution bench.

The Supreme Court had on March 21, 2013, upheld the death sentence of Memon and commuted the death penalty awarded by a special TADA court to 10 others —who had planted RDX laden vehicles at various places in Mumbai — to life term by distinguishing their roles from that of Memon.

The apex court, in its verdict, had dealt with the role played by Memon in the serial blasts and said he was the “driving force” and a “mastermind” behind the blasts.

The court had also said the 10 other convicts on death row were people of lower strata in the society and were without any regular jobs and had fallen prey to the “hidden motives” of the main conspirators.