Apex court sends 1993 Mumbai blasts convict back to jail

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Monday directed the shifting of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yusuf Abdul Razak Memon back to jail after doctors attending on him in Masina Hospital said that he could be discharged and treated in prison.

“He is a known case of chronic paranoid schizophrenia” and also “suffering from diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hyperlipidemia,” said the doctors’ report to the apex court bench of Justice P.Sathasivam and Justice B.S.Chauhan.

The medical opinion was given by the hospital’s psychiatry department head Dr. Y.A.Matcheswala on the directions of the apex court.

Memon was admitted to the Masina hospital Jan 19, 2009 suffering from acute psychosis.

Referring to medical opinion given on June 28, 2010, saying that there was a “risk of relapse in the future of his schizophrenia”, Memon’s counsel U.U.Lalit pleaded for bail for him.

The counsel said that he was moved from jail to the hospital seven times and his condition would worsen if he was sent back to jail.

Justice Sathasivam, however, said that how could the court forget Memon’s status of being a life convict. He has to get back to jail, the court said.

The court too declined Lalit’s plea for seeking another opinion of the hospital doctors attending on Memon.

The plea for bail was stoutly opposed by the Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, who said that it was clear from the medical opinion that Memon could be discharged.

Subramanium said that Memon should be sent back to jail, as he was out and under treatment in the Masina hospital for the last 17 months.

If at a later stage, Memon’s medical condition warranted then he would again be sent for treatment, he said.