These blood-thirsty people will hang Yakub tomorrow: Anand Grover

NEW DELHI: Minutes after the Supreme Court rejected Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon's plea for stay on his execution scheduled for Thursday morning, a dejected senior advocate Anand Grover said, "These blood-thirsty people will hang Yakub tomorrow."
Grover appeared for National Law University, Delhi and assisted Yakub's counsel Raju Ramachandran and senior advocate TR Andhyarujina in trying to persuade a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra to postpone Yakub's execution as fresh mercy pleas were pending before the President and the Maharashtra governor.
The bench considered all arguments advanced on Yakub's behalf by the three seasoned lawyers and rejected them one by one after accepting the reasoning given by attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, who was combative and even belligerent on certain points.
Rohatgi said Yakub was a traitor who deserved no mercy, drawing appreciative chuckles from lawyers and journalists packed into the court-room. The AG also said Yakub must pay for being one of the masterminds behind the killing of 257 people in Mumbai.
"They are talking about 14-day notice that should be given to the condemned prisoner from the date of rejection of the mercy petition. We have given him more than a year's notice. His mercy petition was rejected by the President on April 11, 2014. And the TADA court has given him 90 days notice while issuing death warrant. Even if their claim is true that the death warrant was served on Yakub on July 13, still there was a notice of 17 days. So, the mandate of the Supreme Court judgment is fulfilled," Rohatgi said.
With lawyers and journalists crowding the limited space in court No 4, many found it difficult to enter the room. A lawyer, who found the court room full to the brim, loudly commented, "Yahan machli bazar laga hai kya (Is this a fish market)."
There was another spat during the hearing, this time between Ramachandran and Rohatgi. Ramachandran was repeatedly arguing that the Maharashtra government procured the death warrant against Yakub behind his back on April 30.
"Had the state government informed Yakub or his counsel, he would have been able to tell the TADA court to wait as his curative petition was pending consideration of the Supreme Court," he said.
After Ramachandran repeated it three times, the AG got up and said Yakub's counsel must be fair with facts. "The TADA court suo motu issued the death warrant and we did not procure it behind his back. At the time of issuance of the death warrant, there was no curative petition pending with the SC. The curative petition was filed on May 26 and it was dismissed on July 21," he said.
Ramachandran did not like the interruption and told the bench that he only said Yakub could have informed the TADA court that he desired to file a curative petition and that it should await the decision of the SC before issuing death warrant. The AG said "you said it was pending". Ramachandran raised his voice and replied, "It is not my problem if you (the AG) do not hear it properly."
Later, Ramachandran expressed regret to both the court and the AG for losing his cool.