MUMBAI:Hours after Yakub Memon’s last rites were performed, politics surrounding him took a new turn with a senior Samajwadi Party leader seeking a parliament seat for Yakub’s wife, Raheen. Memon was convicted in the 1993 Mumbai blast case and was executed on Thursday.
Mohammed Farooq Ghosi, the Vice President of SP’s Maharashtra unit wrote a letter to party’s national chief Mulayam Singh Yadav putting forth his request that Raheen must be given a parliament seat as she has suffered a lot.
However, soon after that the party removed him from his post following a backlash on social media and also from various other party leades.
In the letter, a copy of which is available with the dna, SP leader said, “Raheen Yakub Memon was also arrested in the Mumbai blast case but the court released her later as charges against her couldn’t be proved.
But she was in jail for years and might have suffered a lot. You have always supported needy and helpless. I feel that Raheen is also helpless. Likewise, many Muslims in the country are today feeling helpless. We must support Raheen, making her an MP so that she can raise her voice for all such helpless people,”
While Ghosi didn’t respond to calls, senior party leaders did not have an explanation when this correspondent sought their response on Ghosi’s letter.Abu Azmi, state SP chief, sought to wash his hands off the matter. “Party disowns Ghosi’s demand.
We had no idea about such demand as Ghosi has not even consulted us before approaching Mulayam Singh Yadav. I spoke to him over the phone and he admitted that he wrote the letter in personal capacity. Nevertheless, the suggestion of making Yakub’s wife an MP is wrong as she is not a political person,” said Azmi.
Azmi also claimed that the party would initiate action against Ghosi but did not elaborate further. Over 22 years after the 1993 Mumbai blasts, Yakub Memon, the sole convict on death row, was hanged on his 53rd birthday on Thursday after failure of last-gasp efforts by his counsels to stall the execution that led the Supreme Court to hear his plea in the wee hours before throwing it out.
Memon, whom the Supreme Court had described as the “driving spirit” behind the worst terror assault till date that left 257 dead and 713 wounded, was hanged at the Nagpur Central Jail shortly before 7 am, just about two hours after his last-ditch attempt to gain reprieve came to naught.

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