Gross travesty of justice in Yakub Memon's case: Markandey Katju

NEW DELHI: Former Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd.) Markandey Katju today said that there has been "gross travesty of justice" in the case of Yakub Memon, the sole death row convict and a co-conspirator of fugitive Dawood Ibrahim in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.

Katju said after carefully studying the judgement of the court he finds that the evidence on which Memon has been found guilty is "very weak".

"This evidence is retracted confession of the co-accused and alleged recoveries," he said.

Regarding retracted confessions, he said that "everyone knows how confessions are obtained by the police in our country by torture."

Justice (Retd.) Katju further said that torture is such a terrible thing that one will confess to anything under torture.

"Joan of Arc confessed to be a witch under torture. Moreover in Yakub Memon's case the confession was retracted," he said. Regarding recoveries, he said anyone having knowledge of working of police knows that such alleged recoveries are often planted.

On June 21, the Supreme Court had dismissed the curative petition of Memon clearing the decks for his hanging.

However, on June 23, Memon again moved the Supreme Court seeking stay of execution of his death sentence.