Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao has rejected the mercy petition of Yakub Memon, the sole convict to be awarded death penalty in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.  

With this, Memon is all set to be hung at the Nagpur Central Prison at 7 am on 30 July, according to agency reports.

However, senior lawyer KTS Tulsi says Yakub Memom cannot be executed if his mercy plea is pending with the President.

A day before his scheduled hanging, Memon had filed a fresh mercy petition with President Pranab Mukherjee. His first petition with the President was filed by his brother and was rejected.

Governor Rao's decision on Wednesday came after the Supreme Court rejected Memon's plea challenging his death warrant issued by a special TADA court in 2007, claiming that he had not exhausted all the legal remedies available to him when the death sentence was awarded to him.

Yakub Memon had claimed that the death warrant was issued even before the curative petition was disposed off by the Supreme Court.

However, the SC dismissed his plea saying there was no procedural lapse in the curative petition verdict. The SC also rejected Memon's plea seeking stay on his execution.

Memon had filed the petition seeking mercy with the Maharashtra Governor on 21 July, soon after the apex court dismissed his curative petition.

In April 2007, Memon was sentenced to death for arranging finances to execute 13 serial blasts in Mumbai on 12 March, 1993 that left at least 257 people dead and over 700 injured. 

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