Nagpur: As Yakub Memon’s plea comes to hearing, security agencies did an aerial surveillance of the jail premises. A helicopter as well as a small plane was seen hovering over the jail premises. In another development, additional director general of police (Prisons) Meera Borwankar inspected the hanging yard and visited several barracks too alongwith jail superintendent Yogesh Desai and others for the second time on Monday.
The petition challenging the death warrant of Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon will come up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Memon had filed a petition in the apex court pleading to declare the death warrant against him as illegal and to quash it. Yakub’s contention is that the death warrant was issued at a time when his curative petition was pending in the Supreme Court and hence it is illegal.
Meanwhile, Yakub had dashed off another mercy petition to the Governor to be forwarded to the President, the decision on which is pending too. Tuesday may prove to be very crucial for Yakub as the decision on both his mercy petition and petition to declare death warrant as illegal will be announced.
Meanwhile, in the backdrop of the terrorist attack in Gurdaspur on Monday and the alert issued by the intelligence agencies, police have beefed up the security arrangements both inside and outside of jail premises. Those entering the jail including lawyers, journalists and even the cops are checked thoroughly and their identity established before allowing them inside the premises.
After ascertaining that the arrangements are in place for the hanging of Yakub, Borwankar held another round of meeting with the jail officials including Desai and others. The jail administration have been instructed to be ready to face any untoward incident and exigencies. Borwankar made it very clear to the authorities that no lapse in security will be tolerated. In the backdrop of the terrorist attack in Gurdaspur on Monday and the alert issued by the intelligence agencies, police have beefed up the security arrangements both inside and outside of jail premises.
