Mumbai: A day after Asaduddin Owaisi said that 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon is being hanged only because he belongs to a particular religion, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Majeed Memon on Friday refused to back the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief's stand.
Talking to news agency ANI, Majeed Memon said such issues should be left to be dealt by the Supreme Court of India and should not be given religious colour.
"We must not see too much of communalism or politics into it. The highest court will apply its mind and do justice," Memon said.
On Thursday, Owaisi had said: "The killers of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh have the backing of political parties in Tamil Nadu and Punjab. Which political party is backing Yakub Memon? If they want to hang people they should not do it on the basis of religion. They cannot target religion.”
Yakub Memon, convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, had yesterday moved the Supreme Court challenging the death warrant for his execution on July 30.
Seeking a stay of the execution, Memon sought quashing of the death warrant on the grounds that due procedure was not followed for issuing it.
The apex court on Tuesday rejected Memon's curative petition, saying that it was void of merit. On the same day, Memon filed a mercy petition before the Maharashtra governor seeking commutation of his death sentence into life imprisonment.
Memon, in his petition before the Supreme Court, submitted that the death warrant was issued before he could exhaust all his legal remedies. The execution was fixed for July 30 even as his curative petition was still pending in the Supreme Court.
Memon and 11 others were sentenced to death by the Special TADA Court in July 2007 in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts which left 257 dead and 712 were injured. The apex court by its March 21, 2013 verdict uphold his death sentence while commuting the death sentence of 10 others to life imprisonment. One other had died during the trial.
The apex court on April 9 dismissed Memon's plea for the review of death sentence verdict for the second time as it had earlier dismissed his similar plea seeking the recall of March 21, 2013 verdict.
(With Agency inputs)
