Sound and fury over Yakub Memon’s grave beautification

Memon, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, was hanged in 2015 on terror charges and his burial had been conducted amid tight security

MumbaiA politically-fuelled controversy broke out on Thursday after a Marathi news channel reported that Yakub Memon’s grave at Bada Qabristan at Marine Lines had been beautified and turned into a memorial.

Mumbai, India - September 08, 2022: Outside view of Bada Qabrastan at Marine Lines, in Mumbai, India, on Thursday, September 08, 2022. (Photo by Pratik Chorge/Hindustan Times) (Pratik Chorge/HT PHOTO)

Memon, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, was hanged in 2015 on terror charges and his burial had been conducted amid tight security.

Soon after the channel flashed the report, the BJP charged Uddhav Thackeray and the MVA government with building a memorial for a terrorist. A police probe was ordered, and demands were raised for Uddhav Thackeray to tender an apology.

However, the police soon found out that the beautification work was done, not by the MVA government, but by Memon’s family, and it extended to an entire plot where 14 other members of the Memon family lie buried.

The BJP contented that the MVA government had given permission for the beautification of the grave and demanded an apology from Uddhav Thackeray. “The beautification of the grave happened during the previous Thackeray government. It would not have happened without the knowledge of the then CM. It has painted Maharashtra in a bad light at the national level,” alleged Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule. However, excise minister in the present government, Shambhuraj Desai who is from Shinde faction, and who was a minister of state for home in Thackeray’s government said they had had no such information, and that the MVA government never gave any permission. “We had no information about any plans to beautify the grave so there is no question of supporting it or giving any permission.”

Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavi subsequently announced that another high-level committee would probe the grave’s beautification, and will also probe whether the government was deliberately kept in the dark. On Thursday, the Mumbai police also asked the caretakers of the bada qabristan to take down the LED lights that had been put around the graveyard.

A police officer who was part of the preliminary probe told Hindustan Times that Memon’s family had placed marble tiles around the graves of their family members. He also said that the family had bought the burial plot. The LED light, he said, had been put this year on August 18, on the eve of Badi Raat. And they were lit only on that night and had not been lit since.

Officers of the LT Marg police station will record the Memon’s family statement as part of their probe, and try to ascertain whether the beautification was done with the intent to turn Yakub’s grave into a memorial of sorts.

The Shiv Sena and the Congress too have since jumped into the controversy. “The allegations levelled by BJP against us are baseless. The question here is why was the body handed over to the family? The beautification of the grave was carried out five years ago when we were not in power. The ward in which the grave is located is controlled by a BJP councillor. The BJP should answer if their leaders were responsible for these developments,” said Shiv Sena leader and leader of opposition Ambadas Danve.

Leader of opposition Ajit Pawar claimed the BJP was raising the issue to divert people’s attention from issues like inflation, unemployment and farmers’ suicides. “They (BJP) cannot speak against inflation and unemployment. They are also not helping the farmers who are committing suicide following devastating floods in the state. This is their attempt to divert attention, which needs to be understood by the people at large,” Pawar said.

Shoaib Khatib, trustee of Bada Kabrastan, said that the marbles were installed around the graves around four years ago and the graves were being managed by the family, and not the trust. “The video footage being shown on TV news channels is not fresh, it is from ‘Shab-e-Barat’ in August when we illuminate the entire graveyard and not just this particular grave. This is nothing but politics,” he added.