Pointing out “serious lacunae” in the “prosecution tale” and the evidence of prosecution witness (PW) 474 (the then SP, CBI, Special Task Force (STF), H C Singh), the court states that it is clearly indicated “that the prosecution has not come clean before the court and is suppressing truth from the court.”

The CBI which claimed to have seized a suitcase full of “incriminating” documents, including Yakub’s Pakistani passport, never produced them before the court. Thus the relevant evidence miserably fails to establish that he was apprehended at Delhi railway station on the date and time as claimed by the prosecution and that the articles as alleged were seized from him, the judgment says.

While explaining reasons for sentencing Yakub to death, the judge says, “.. it is a universally known fact that such a clever criminal not only always remains at the back but always takes care that they remain away from the clutches of law.”

On Tuesday, though it was the turn of the Memons—Essa, Rubeena and Yusuf—to receive the copy of the judgment, they had to return without it. So far, 34 convicts have been handed over their copies of the judgment by the court.