Indian Home Minister Recommends Execution of Mumbai Blasts Convict

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh has recommended that the mercy plea by Yakub Memon, who was convicted of organizing the 1993 Mumbai bombings, be rejected, at a meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee, a source in the Home Ministry told Sputnik on Wednesday.

NEW DEHLI (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Memon addressed a second mercy petition to the Indian president, asking for him to call off the execution scheduled for Thursday morning.

The Indian Supreme Court rejected the convict’s final appeal on Wednesday, leaving the decision to the country’s president. According to protocol, Mukherjee asked the home minister for advice on the matter.

On March 12, 1993, a series of 13 bomb explosions in Mumbai killed between 250 and 350 people, according to various estimates.

Yakub Memon, the younger brother to one of the main suspects in the attack, Tiger Memon, was convicted in 2007 for assisting his brother in planning the bombings and providing funds to train terrorists.

The Supreme Court upheld the verdict in 2013.