Did Yakub Memon return to India on understanding with intelligence officials, asks Omar Abdullah

SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today joined the debate over capital punishment to Yakub Memon saying the critical question was whether the Mumbai blast convict returned to India on the back of an understanding.

"One critical question--did he (Memon) return from Pakistan on the back of an understanding and if he did, was this disclosed?" Omar posted on microblogging site Twitter.

He was reacting to a tweet by author Suhel Seth who had said that the court verdict on the 1993 Mumbai blast convict can be commented upon but not challenged.

"For me Yakub Memon's case is cut and dry. The courts have convicted him and they have sentenced him. We can comment, not challenge," Seth had tweeted.

Following Omar's tweet, Seth said it is the travesty of justice if the court had not taken into consideration the reports that Memon had returned to India following an understanding with some intelligence officials.

"Valid point which I am sure the Courts have gone into and if not, then it is a travesty of our justice system," Seth wrote in another tweet.

Former Research and Analysis (RAW) officer B Raman, in an article written in 2007, had written that Memon, whose curative petition was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier this week, had cooperated with the establishment in the Mumbai blasts case.