




Yakub was sentenced to death on July 27 for his role as one of the key conspirators in the 1993 serial blasts case. His brothers, Essa and Yusuf, and sister-in-law Rubeena were sentenced to life. The Memons, including Yakub, who is currently lodged in Nashik Jail, have been summoned on Thursday to receive a copy of the judgment.
Yakub, since his arrest in 1994, has been claiming that he had surrendered before the CBI on July 28, 1994, eight days before he was “arrested”. Even in his statement after he was convicted, he said, “I gathered my strength and returned to India on July 28, 1994. The same day I surrendered to the authorities.” But the CBI had claimed that they had arrested Yakub on a “tip-off” that a “terrorist” is on the prowl in Delhi and will be coming near a Delhi railway station.
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.
... contd.


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