On death row for the ghastly Mumbai blasts of 1993, Yakub Memon is alleged to have said “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do” as he was handed out his death sentence. His curative petition was rejected recently by the Supreme Court of India and it is very likely he will now be hanged on July 30th, coinciding with his 53rd birthday.

The curious case of Memon is troubling and compelling. By no means is he innocent, his role in the conspiracy to wreak havoc on India’s commercial capital has been clearly established and he has been given every opportunity by the Indian judicial system to prove his innocence as well as to enter his plea for commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment.

Yet why is there a lingering suspicion of miscarriage of justice? It is a fact that 257 innocent lives were lost and over 700 people were gravely injured on that ill-fated day in March of 1993; despite that there is a nagging feeling that the state has deliberately made him into a fall guy. The primary conspirators, Dawood Ebrahim and Tiger Memon — Yakub’s brother — are well out of reach of the Indian establishment and there is a creeping unease that the state is set on a wanton bloodletting to appease the public.

One of the more perplexing questions in this case is why did he come back to India? For like his co-conspirators he fled before those bombings took place, yet he chose to return. Indeed his alleged capture in Delhi, at a railway station is in itself a matter of much conjecture and mystery. Apparently he was detained in Nepal and brought clandestinely to India though the Indian police say he was nabbed in Delhi; Indian investigative agencies are known to routinely embellish their efforts to capture and arrest fugitives.

But what was Yakub doing in Nepal? Again we are met with wild and fanciful stories. There have been repeated assertions for a very long time that the prime accused in the Mumbai blasts, including Yakub, fled to Pakistan before these deadly attacks. And so Yakub was in Nepal to explore the possibilities of returning to India. The narrative takes on a dramatic turn here; his brother, the infamous Tiger Memon tells him he is being stupid to go back but Yakub thinks otherwise. Next in Nepal it is high drama that no crime writer could script. Yakub loses his nerve at the last minute and heads back to safety in Pakistan but at the airport security check there is a careless slip-up and his Indian and Pakistan passports stumble out of his bags. He is nabbed, Indian authorities alerted and then promptly handed over at the Indo-Nepal border to be flown out by a special aircraft to Delhi.

Fanciful story

An even more fanciful story is that Yakub was in Nepal to negotiate the terms of his return with the Indian authorities. But something went wrong or the deal fell apart when he returned, India simply reneging on its deal. Interestingly there have been press reports recently that the much hated Dawood was also at one time parlaying with India to return but his terms were unacceptable. Eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani made a public declaration that he was in negotiation with the then Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar on Dawood’s behalf. If so the question that hangs in the air is why did not India do a Yakub on Dawood; say yes and then renege! A small price to pay for incarcerating and then hanging Dawood.

Do then India and some of its leading lights have something sinister to hide? For Dawood, on his return, could spill the beans and the public at large would have been forced to accept harsh truths!

What of the higher judiciary in India? Has it allowed itself to be influenced by public opinion?  Is its much acclaimed fame of being one of India’s truly great institution slowly fading?

Cut back to Afzal Guru, the man who was given the death sentence for his role in the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament? Justice Reddy of the Supreme Court of India termed it “a gravest crime of enormous severity” falling within the ‘rarest of rare’ category. Fair enough, but then he added these words, which are deeply troubling: “The collective conscience of the society will be satisfied only if the death penalty is awarded to Afzal Guru.”

Why his Lordship felt the need to belabour his judgement with this caveat is something this columnist, who is no legal expert, can fathom. Indeed it gives credence to Arundhati Roy’s words: “Who crafted our collective conscience on the parliament attack case? Could it have been the facts we gleaned in the papers? The films we saw on TV?”

Yakub is indeed guilty, but could not his death sentence have been commuted? The critically acclaimed Indian crime thriller Black Friday hints as much with its opening and closing frames echoing the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “An eye for an eye makes the world go blind.”

The time set for execution is 3.40am, July 30; the prison manual ghoulishly stipulates he is fed a lavish breakfast for his 53rd birthday, his last meal; and then he is a dead man walking.

Perhaps Yakub’s death will force the Supreme Court to reflect on its recent judgements.

Ravi Menon is a Dubai-based writer, working on a series of essays on India and on a public service initiative called India Talks.