40 Eminent Personalties Sign Mercy Petition for Yakub Memon

Just days before 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon's scheduled hanging on July 30, a fresh mercy petition signed by 40 eminent personalities including Shatrughan Sinha, Prakash Karat and Mahesh Bhat has been sent to the President of India.

Other signatories include CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat, Sitaram Yechury and Bollywood veteran Nasiruddin Shah.

This comes on a day when Bollywood actor Salman Khan came out in defence of Yakub Memon, saying the wrong man is being hanged for the crimes of his brother Tiger Memon.

ALSO READ: Salman's Security Tightened As Actor Faces Flak Over Yakub Memon' Tweet

"Get tiger hang him. Parade him not his brother," the actor tweeted. Tiger Memon is one of the prime suspects in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case. Khan said he had been wanting to tweet about the issue for some days but was afraid.

Salman requested mercy for Yakub in a series of tweets while openly attacked Tiger Memon calling him a billi (cat)' and a lomdi (fox) daring him to come out of hiding.

Meanwhile, security has been tightened outside the Bandra residence of Bollywood actor Salman Khan after he came out in defence with Yakub Memon, a death row convict in the 1993 Mumbai blast case.

"We have tightened security outside Salman Khan's residence to prevent any untoward incident," DCP (detection) Dhananjay Kulkarni said.