Members of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) protest in New Delhi on Monday.

The body of Yakub Memon, the Mumbai serial bomb blasts convict who was hanged in Nagpur on Thursday, has been handed over to his family, the authorities said.
Initially, the jail authorities were not inclined to hand over the body and planned to perform the last rites in an isolated spot in the jail campus.
After the hanging, Memon’s brother Sulaiman submitted an application to the jail authorities, urging the body be handed over to enable the family perform the last rites in Mumbai.

The request was immediately processed and permission - with stringent conditions - was granted and the body handed over.
It was taken to Nagpur airport and flown in an air ambulance to Mumbai for the funeral rites scheduled on Thursday evening.
In 2013, the body of Afzal Guru, who was hanged for his involvement in the 2001 parliament attack case, was not handed over to his family. His last rites were performed in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
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India hangs Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon 22 years after attack
India hanged Yakub Memon on Thursday for his role in the country's deadliest bombings, which killed 257 people in Mumbai in 1993, after the Supreme Court threw out his final plea for a stay of execution.
Memon was convicted as the "driving spirit" behind the serial blasts in India's financial capital Mumbai, then known as Bombay. He spent two decades in jail before going to the gallows on his  birthday in a jail in the western city of Nagpur.

 The execution drew wide public support but has stirred controversy about whether the punishment adequately reflected the help Memon gave authorities in solving the crime.
Critics question whether Memon's death serves India's larger interests, saying it sends the wrong message to potential collaborators with justice agencies.
 "It's extremely sad that India has gone ahead, we had been hoping India will now call for a moratorium," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
"But it's very welcome that now there seems to be a growing debate around this in India."
In a dramatic sequence of events, a Supreme Court panel held an unprecedented hearing in the early hours of Thursday, before rejecting Memon's last-ditch plea for a 14-day delay in execution. Several previous pleas had also been rejected.
Police consider Memon's brother, "Tiger" Memon, and mafia don Dawood Ibrahim to be the masterminds behind the attacks. Both men remain in hiding.
Memon's body was released for burial in Mumbai, with police deployed in riot gear to guard against possible street protests and security tightened at the family home.

Wider Debate

For decades India had been reluctant to carry out death sentences, until it voted in 2012 against a UN draft resolution for a global moratorium on executions.
Memon's execution was the third in less than three years, following an eight-year gap, said the Indian arm of rights group Amnesty International, which opposes the death penalty.
"The Indian government essentially killed a man in cold blood to show that killing is wrong," its executive director, Aakar Patel, said.
Attack survivors welcomed the news, however. "The government has given us a ray of hope," one man told news channel India Today, without giving his name. "We have to feel that full justice has been received."
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Yakub Memon hanged in Nagpur, to be buried in Mumbai
Yakub Abdul Razzak Memon, convicted in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, was hanged till death at Maharashtra's Nagpur Central Jail on Thursday morning, officials said.
After the hanging, Memon's brother Sulaiman submitted an application to the jail authorities, demanding handing over of the body to enable them perform the last rites in Mumbai.
The request was immediately processed and permission - with stringent conditions - was granted and the body handed over.
It was taken to Nagpur airport and flowing in an air ambulance for the funeral rites scheduled on Thursday evening.
Mumbai police have deployed tight security in Mahim area where the Memon's home is located and at other sensitive places in the city and the state.
Chief Minister Devednra Fadnavis will make a statement in the Maharashtra Legislature later in the day.

The legal battle continued till barely a few hours before his hanging.
Memon was the first-and only convict out of 100 in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case-whose hanging was upheld by the Supreme Court.
The death sentence of 11 others was commuted to life. A Mumbai Special Court had sentenced him to death in July 2007.
The death warrant was issued by a Special TADA Court judge on April 29, scheduling the execution for July 30.
Maharashtra had started preparations for the noose for Memon almost three weeks ago.
Memon filed a fresh appeal in the Supreme Court, followed by a clemency plea with the Maharashtra governor, again a fresh plea in the apex court and a final appeal with the president of India.
He got no relief from any quarters, paving the way for his execution.
The Supreme Court early on Thursday rejected a last ditch attempt by him to delay his execution.
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Delhi on alert after Yakub Memon's hanging
An alert has been sounded here following 1993 Mumbai serial blast convict Yakub Memon's hanging in Nagpur jail on Thursday.
Delhi Police has beefed up the security.

Delhi Police PRO Rajan Bhagat told IANS that police personnel are already vigilant and watchful after the terror attack in Punjab and the alert is being maintained.
Additional police and other security personnel have been deployed around key public places, he said.
Memon was hanged after several of his court appeals and clemency petitions were rejected by various courts.
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Yakub Memon's hanging third in three years
Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon on Thursday became the third person to be hanged till death in India in the last three years, a report said.
According to a National Crime Record Bureau prison statistics report, 1,303 capital-punishment verdicts were given between 2004 and 2015.
But only three convicts were executed over this period, one each in West Bengal (2004), Maharashtra (2012) and Delhi (2013). India saw an execution-free period of seven years between 2004 and 2012.
Memon was hanged at the Nagpur Central Jail in Maharashtra early on Thursday after being convicted in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, 25, the only terrorist to have survived the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was hanged on November 21, 2012 in Pune's Yerwada Jail.
Mohammad Afzal Guru, 44, was given the death sentence for his role in the December 2001 terrorist attack on parliament. He was secretly hanged at Tihar Jail in Delhi on February 9, 2013 and afterward buried inside jail grounds.
 
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Yakub Memon hanged till death in Nagpur jail
Yakub Memon, convicted in the March 12, 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, was hanged till death at the Nagpur Central Jail in Maharashtra on Thursday morning, officials said.
He was sent to the gallows-on his 54th birthday on Thursday-after several of his court appeals and clemency petitions were rejected by various courts, including the Bombay High Court, the Supreme Court, the Maharashtra governor and the president of India.
Memon was hanged at 6:35 am. A medical team at the jail pronounced him dead a short while later.
His body was sent for an autopsy by a medical team from a Nagpur government hospital, before being cleared for the last rites.
The last of the legal procedures continued till barely a couple of hours before the execution this morning before sunrise.
Memon was the first-and only convict out of 100 in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case-whose hanging was upheld by the Supreme Court.
The death sentence of 11 others was commuted to life.
A Mumbai Special Court had sentenced him to death in July 2007.
The death warrant was issued by a Special TADA Court judge on April 29, scheduling the execution for July 30.
Maharashtra had started preparations for the noose for Memon almost three weeks ago.
Memon filed a fresh appeal in the Supreme Court, followed by a clemency plea with the Maharashtra governor, again a fresh plea in the apex court and a final appeal with the president of India.
He got no relief from any quarters, paving the way for his execution.
The Supreme Court on early on Thursday rejected a last ditch attempt by 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon to stall his execution.
Memon had challenged the rejection of his mercy petition by the president.
Past midnight on Thursday, the apex court bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Prafulla C. Pant and Justice Amitava Roy rejected Memon's plea seeking 14 days' time before the execution of his death sentence is carried out.

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