DNA Special: Row over Yakub Memon's grave 'makeover'; how he planned and executed the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts

Who are those people who shower petals on graves of terrorists? 

Who are those people who visit funerals of terrorists as their sympathisers? 

Who are those people who keep looking for opportunities to praise terrorists? 

We are raising these questions because some people are bent on turning a terrorist’s grave into a shrine in Mumbai. We are talking about the attempts being made for beautification of the burial place of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon. 

Memon was sentenced to death in the series blast case. He was hanged at Nagpur jail in 2015 and buried at the Bada Qabrastan in south Mumbai’s Marine Lines area.

The images of the ‘beautified’ grave showed marble tiles and LED lights around it. These pictures have been going viral since March 19, 2022. Notably, Shab-e-Barat was celebrated on March 18. This is being cited as the reason behind installing lights around the grave.

Terrorist Yakub Memon was hanged in the year 2015, after that in 2016-17 marbles were installed on Yakub's grave. The permission to decorate the grave of a terrorist with marble was given by the trust looking after the cemetery. 

It seems that the grave of a terrorist was being made a tourist point. With the help of colored skirting and focus lights, the tomb of terrorist Yakub was being described as a special grave. The trust could have taken action on decorating the grave of the terrorist, but it did not do so.

Yakub was one of the prime accused in the 1993 serial bomb blasts which left 257 people dead and over 1,400 people injured in the country’s financial capital. 

Yakub Memon's elder brother, Tiger Memon is the main accused in this serial blasts. Yakub Memon was a Chartered Accountant at that time and handled the funding of the terror attack. However, Yakub always said that he was not aware of the conspiracy.

15 people were sent to Pakistan for training for the blasts. Yakub Memon had given money to these 15 people. The entire Memon family had fled India shortly before the blasts. Yakub had prepared the entire plan for the Memon family to escape.

The Mumbai serial blasts were planned and executed by Tiger Memon, Dawood Ibrahim and ISI. That is why the Memon family got full protection in Pakistan. The entire Memon family remained in Pakistan after the blasts.

Yakub Memon was arrested from New Delhi Railway Station on August 5, 1994. Although it is also said that Yakub surrendered in Nepal in July.

The hearing in this case went on for about 13 years. Then in July 2007, the TADA court sentenced Yakub Memon to death. After this, in March 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty.

The Supreme Court declared Yakub Memon to be the mastermind of 1993 blasts. In May 2014, the then President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Yakub's mercy petition. After this, Yakub Memon was hanged in September 2015.