Hysteria, Thy Name Is Yakub Memon
Saab, mujhe boolne dijeye, main thoda paagal hoon, main door ki
soochta hoon, baad me mujhe paagal karaar kar dijeye, lekin mujhe boolne
dijeye. Good people are not making noises,” a desperate Yakub Memon had
told the TADA court judge PD Kode in a jam-packed court on September
14, 2006. Yakub Memon is a chartered accountant who is convicted in 1993 Bombay bombings case. With sound knowledge in legal issues, Yakub, a chartered accountant, is considered one of the sharpest brains among the 100 convicts in the case.
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| Yakub Memon |
Yakub’s remarks had come minutes after he had raked up the issue of the Srikrishna Inquiry Commission report on the 1992-93 Mumbai communal riots and alleged that he had been “dragged” into the case as he was blast mastermind Tiger Memon’s younger brother.
Apparently taking advantage of the presence of a large number of mediapersons in the designated TADA court room, Yakub - who had been among the four Memon family members convicted by the court two days earlier for being a part of the blasts conspiracy and abetting the March 12, 1993 blasts —had deliberately sought to digress from the quantum of punishment to be handed to him in the blasts case, by raising the issue of Srikrishna Inquiry Commission report.
A hysterical Yakub, who subsequently came to be handed out capital punishment by the TADA court in the 1993 blasts case, had told Judge Kode: “There should not be any injustice to anybody. Srikrishna Commission me jinka naam aaya hai, they should also be tried. No trial has started against those indicted in the Srikrishna report. But, you have already convicted us in the blasts case.”
His remarks were in the context of the fact that BN Srikrishna Commission, which had probed the 1992-93 post-Babri Masjid demolition communal riots in Mumbai and briefly looked into the subsequent 1993 serial bomb blasts, had among others indicted Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray for “instigating” organised attacks against Muslims, through his provocative editorials in Shiv Sena’s official mouth-piece “Saamna”. The then Sena-BJP Government, under Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, rejected the Srikrishna Commission’s findings.
As Yakub continued talking about the Srikrishna Commission report, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam objected to the former’s statements, by saying that the blast accused was delivering a `political speech’. Despite an intervention then by lawyer for Memon’s family Harshad Ponda notwithstanding, Yakub had indulged in a brief verbal duel with Nikam.
Claiming that he had nothing to do with the 1993 blasts, Yakub had said: “We are not terrorists. For future generations we need to break this vicious cycle. The main accused never gets caught and innocents suffer”.
He said that from Dubai, he came back to India on July 28, 1994 and later pursued other family members to come back and “clear their name”. “Instead they (the authorities) made us accused in the case,” he said.
Stating that it was only after the blasts that he had come to know that his elder brother was known as “Tiger” Memon, Yakub said: “We know him as Ibrahimbhai (Mustaq alias Ibrahim Memon) at home. I have been dragged because I am his younger brother”.
Apparently taking advantage of the presence of a large number of mediapersons in the designated TADA court room, Yakub - who had been among the four Memon family members convicted by the court two days earlier for being a part of the blasts conspiracy and abetting the March 12, 1993 blasts —had deliberately sought to digress from the quantum of punishment to be handed to him in the blasts case, by raising the issue of Srikrishna Inquiry Commission report.
A hysterical Yakub, who subsequently came to be handed out capital punishment by the TADA court in the 1993 blasts case, had told Judge Kode: “There should not be any injustice to anybody. Srikrishna Commission me jinka naam aaya hai, they should also be tried. No trial has started against those indicted in the Srikrishna report. But, you have already convicted us in the blasts case.”
His remarks were in the context of the fact that BN Srikrishna Commission, which had probed the 1992-93 post-Babri Masjid demolition communal riots in Mumbai and briefly looked into the subsequent 1993 serial bomb blasts, had among others indicted Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray for “instigating” organised attacks against Muslims, through his provocative editorials in Shiv Sena’s official mouth-piece “Saamna”. The then Sena-BJP Government, under Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, rejected the Srikrishna Commission’s findings.
As Yakub continued talking about the Srikrishna Commission report, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam objected to the former’s statements, by saying that the blast accused was delivering a `political speech’. Despite an intervention then by lawyer for Memon’s family Harshad Ponda notwithstanding, Yakub had indulged in a brief verbal duel with Nikam.
Claiming that he had nothing to do with the 1993 blasts, Yakub had said: “We are not terrorists. For future generations we need to break this vicious cycle. The main accused never gets caught and innocents suffer”.
He said that from Dubai, he came back to India on July 28, 1994 and later pursued other family members to come back and “clear their name”. “Instead they (the authorities) made us accused in the case,” he said.
Stating that it was only after the blasts that he had come to know that his elder brother was known as “Tiger” Memon, Yakub said: “We know him as Ibrahimbhai (Mustaq alias Ibrahim Memon) at home. I have been dragged because I am his younger brother”.
Courtesy: The Daily Pioneer [Edited]
