Yakub's body handed over to family

Nagpur: The body of Yakub Memon, the Mumbai serial bomb blasts convict who was hanged here 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.