The Mumbai serial blast convict, Yakub Memon, who is to be hanged to death on Thursday at a Maharashtra Jail, sent a fresh mercy plea to President Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday morning.
His plea comes at a time when the Supreme Court is hearing a petition to put a stay on his execution.
As per norms, President Mukherjee will forward the mercy plea to Union Home Ministry for examination. The President is bound by the advice of the Council of Ministers, in this case the Home Ministry.
The Home Ministry is unlikely to take a lenient view on his mercy plea as Centre has already opposed any relief to be given to Memon.
Last year in May, the President, acting on the advice of Home Ministry had rejected Memon's mercy petition.
Hanging in the balance
A little over 20 years after 13 co-ordinated blasts rocked Mumbai, killing 257 and injuring over 700, the lone convict on death, Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, could be hanged on July 30 if the SC rejects his curative petition against death sentence.
>From messenger to mastermind
Yakub Memon would pay for his brother's sins and become the only man to be sentenced to death in the Mumbai blasts case.
>Trial and error
Trial courts have been handing out death sentences at the rate of ten a month for the last 15 years.
>Why the death penalty must end:
The world is moving away from using the death penalty. The European Union has made "abolition of death penalty" a prerequisite for membership: says Kanimozhi
Timeline
>A case for mercy
Hanging Yakub Memon will be cruel and inhuman. Meanwhile, the masterminds of the attack remain out of reach.
>From 'best' CA to death row detenu
Yakub was once named the best chartered accountant by the Memon community
>Justice or vengeance?
Procedure followed to obtain death warrant for Yakub Memon suffers from serious constitutional flaws
>Yakub Memon and the story of the death penalty
This will be India's third execution since it lifted its informal 8-year moratorium