Yakub Memon first in 31 years to be executed in Nagpur jail

New Delhi, Jul 30: Yakub Memon today became the first convict in 31 years to be hanged to death in Nagpur Jail and the fourth in the country in the last 10 years.

53-year-old Memon, convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, was executed shortly before 7 am in the Nagpur Central Jail at the end of a protracted legal battle.

The last convicts to be hanged in the Nagpur jail were Wankhede brothers from Amravati in 1984 after they were found guilty in a murder case.

Mohammed Afzal Guru, a convict in the 2001 Parliament attack case, was hanged inside Delhi'’s Tihar Jail on February 9, 2013, On November 21 2012, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist to have survived the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was hanged in Pune's Yerwada Jail.

On August 14 2004, Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was hanged at Alipore Central Jail in West Bengal on his 42nd birthday, was convicted for the rape and murder of a teenage girl.

The most death sentences were awarded in 2007 (186), followed by 164 in 2005, according to the National Crime Records Bureau's prison data.

In addition, 3,751 death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment during this period, according to official data.

PTI