Yakub Memon's mercy plea to be heard in SC today

New Delhi, July 27: Yakub Memon, who has been ordered to be hanged on July 30, for his alleged involvement in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, has sought a stay on his execution set for July 30. The Supreme Court will hear his plea today.

He pleaded that the death warrant for his execution was issued before he could exhaust the legal remedies available to him and when his curative petiton was pending consideration by the court. Meanwhile, lawyer Ram Jethmalani and leaders from four different political parties have appealed to the President-Pranab Mukherjee- to reconsider Memon's execution.

Among them included BJP's Shatrughan Sinha, Congress's Mani Shankar Aiyer, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, actor Naseeruddin Shah, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, activist Tushar Gandhi, lawyer Vrinda Grover and economist Jean Dreze.

Apart from them, actor Salman Khan also voiced his concern over the execution and said,"Not Yakub, but Tiger should be hanged." To this, a number of angry protestors demanded an apology outside his house. Apologising, he said,"My dad called & said I should retract my tweets as they have the potential to create misunderstanding. I here by retract them. I would like to unconditionally apologise for any misunderstanding I may have created unintentionally."

SC judge Markandey Katju said that Memon's death was a "gross travesty of justice" as the evidence was weak. Katju further questioned the judiciary, saying that confessions and alleged recoveries could be concocted. "Eeryone knows how confessions are obtained by the police in our country by torture," he said.

On July 21, the apex court had rejected Memon's curative petition saying it was void of merit. ON the very same day, Memon filed a mercy petition before the Maharashtra governor, seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment.

The 1993 blasts killed close to 250 people and 400 people were injured.

OneIndia News