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Kasab to Memon: Five executions in India that hit headlines
As Yakub Memon makes headlines, here is a look at five prominent executions in the last 25 years which made headlines and history.
Yakub Memon, convicted in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, was hanged till death at the Nagpur Central Jail in Maharashtra on Thursday morning. His execution came after 24 hours of dramatic developments during which the execution was cleared twice by the Supreme Court and once by President Pranab Mukherjee.
As Yakub Memon makes headlines, here is a look at five prominent executions in the last 25 years which made headlines and history.
Afzal Guru
Hanged on: February 9, 2013 at Tihar Jail, New Delhi
Who: A Kashmiri who was convicted for his role in carrying out the 2001 Parliament attack.
Crime: Planning and facilitating the terrorist attack on the Parliament in which 9 persons, including eight security personnel and one gardener, were killed. Journalist Praful Bidwai and writer Arundhati Roy had argued that Guru's trial had serious flaws and he was denied a proper judicial process.
Ajmal Kasab
Hanged on: November 21, 2012 at the Yerwada Central Jail, Pune, Maharashtra
Who: A Pakistani militant of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)
Crime: Kasab, along with 9 other terrorists, went around spraying bullets at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus during the 2008 Mumbai attack, in which more than 150 people were killed and 600 others injured. Kasab was the only attacker to be caught alive.
Dhananjoy Chatterjee
Hanged on: August 14, 2004 at the Alipore Jail in Kolkata
Who: A security guard in an Apartment in Kolkata
Crime: He raped and murdered an 18-year-girl, a resident of the apartment he worked as a guard in, in March 1990.
Auto Shankar
Hanged on: April 27, 1995 at Salem Central Prison, Tamil Nadu
Who: An auto-rickshaw driver in Chennai
Crime: Shankar was hanged after found guilty of six murders over a period of two years in 1987-88. According to a report in The Hindu, the victims were either burnt after being killed or were buried inside residential houses.
Harjinder Singh Jinda and Sukhdev Singh Sukha
Harjinder Singh Jinda
Hanged on: October 9, 1992 at the Yerwada Central Jail, Pune, Maharashtra
Who: Militants fighting for a separate Sikh state of Khalistan and seeking revenge for the 1984 Operation Bluestar during which armed forces stormed into Golden Temple in Amritsar to kill extremists.
Crime: In 1986, the duo assassinated General Arun Vaidya, who was the Chief of Indian army at the time of Operation Blue Star and also credited with designing the operation. They were also involved in the killing of Congress leaders Lalit Maken and Arjan Dass in 1985.
(Photos: HT File)
