Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy firm on Yakub Memon Tweets despite controversy

Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy has defended his remarks that many of those who had attended the funeral of 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts convict Yakub Memon were potential terrorists.

Memon was hanged to death on Thursday and was buried within 12 hours of his execution. 

As hundreds joined the funeral, the governor tweeted, “Intelligence should keep a tab on all (expt relatives & close friends) who assembled bfr Yakub Memon's corpse. Many are potential terrorists.”

His remarks provoked a widespread controversy. But governor talking to bdnews24.com said he would stand by every word he had tweeted.

Roy said: “I have said that except close friends and relatives anyone else who had gone to his funeral or who were seen before his body ought to be watched by the intelligence. So what is wrong about that?”

“Why did those people go to accompany or stand before the body of a dreaded terrorist who had killed so many people? Why did they go? I stand absolutely by every word of my tweet.”

Reacting to the CPI (M)’s claim that the execution of Yakub Memon was "miscarriage of justice" and that the government was "going slow in pursuing the Hindutva terrorism cases,” the governor said Yakub Memon’s death penalty had nothing to do with any individual’s religion and everything was done on the basis of the law of the country.

“It’s a question of penology and it has got nothing to do with the individual. I don’t know why nobody has been raising question against what the Communists or Communist parties are saying.

But it (death penalty) is carried out in China. In China people are even hanged or executed for economic offences, which never happens in India. So what would they say about it,” said Roy.

“This man was a despicable terrorist, dreaded terrorist who conspired the death of 257 people. So he deserved only hanging and nothing less as decided by the Supreme Court. I don’t understand how can there be two opinions about this.”

According to the governor, the Supreme Court of India had taken the most unusual procedure by holding the court proceedings in the middle of the night in this case.

“Our government here believes that death penalty is a deterrent, ought to remain, of course in the rarest of the rare cases. That is the law of the country. Now individually if one goes into the case of Yakub Memon, he had been tried in a very elaborate judicial process.

“I would say a very unusual judicial process after that the highest court of India had decided that he should be hanged and he had been hanged. Now what? I really do not understand now what?”

Meanwhile, on the issue of state government giving safe passage to militants, the governor expressed his reservation.

He viewed that the safe passage to surrendered militants might encourage insurgency.

But at the same time he said it was for the elected government to take a call on the matter and that he would interfere only if there was any constitutional issue.