New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath Singh met President Pranab Mukherjee and has conveyed government's view that 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon's mercy plea should be rejected, said sources on Wednesday.
The sources said that the President is likely to follow the government's advice, which wanted Memon to be hanged at the earliest.
Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Governor Chennamaneni Vidyasagar Rao and three-member bench of the Supreme Court turned down his plea seeking a reconsideration of his death sentence.
The apex court has upheld the death warrant against Memon and said it is correct, and the dismissal of his curative petition by three senior most Supreme Court judges is in accordance with the law.
Speaking on the case, senior lawyer Ujjwal Nikam said, "The Supreme Court has rejected all the contentions raised by Yakub Memon."
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Memon, in his plea, had claimed he was suffering from schizophrenia since 1996 and has remained behind bars for nearly 20 years, much more than a person serving life term has to spend in jail.
He had sought commutation of death penalty, contending that a convict cannot be awarded life term and the death sentence for the same offence. The apex court had on June 2, 2014 stayed the execution of Memon and referred his plea to a Constitution Bench as to whether review petitions in death penalty cases be heard in an open court or in chambers.
The apex court had on April 9, 2014 dismissed Memon's petition seeking review of his death sentence which was upheld on March 21, 2013.
Memon is convicted for criminal conspiracy under Section 120-B of the IPC, aiding, abetting and facilitating a terrorist act, illegal possession and transportation of arms and ammunition and possessing explosives with intent to endanger lives.
According to investigating agency, Tiger Memon got Yakub involved in planning and plotting the serial blasts that killed at least 257 people and injured about 700 on March 12, 1993.
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