Yakub memon: from a flourishing ca to a death row detenu

Yakub Abdul Razzak Memon, who has been sentenced to death for his role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, was once named as the best chartered accountant by the Memon community. The brother of Ibrahim alias Tiger Memon, the chief conspirator of the 13 blasts which hit the country�s commercial capital, Yakub Memon, 53, is lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail and will be the first and only accused in the case to go the gallows. Tiger, 52, is considered to be a close aide of the absconder mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, and both are declared �wanted absconders� in the same case. Yakub, the third of six sons of Abdul Razzak Memon, turned out to be most highly educated in the Memon family. He studied in an English medium school, later acquired a B.Com degree and then qualified as a chartered accountant in 1990. A year later, he set up �Mehta & Memon Associates� along with a childhood friend Chetan Mehta. A year later, they parted ways and Memon set up his independent firm, �AR & Sons�, in memory of his father. This firm proved so successful that he was conferred the Best CA Award by the Memon community in Mumbai. He diversified into exports and set up a company, Tejrath International, to export meat and meat products to the Gulf and the Middle East. In a very short period, Yakub became a financial success and invested in six flats in the Al-Hussaini Building in Mahim, close to the famous Mahim Dargah. Masters� degrees Yakub may not live to receive his second master�s degree, in Political Science, which he earned while pursuing studies in the Central Prison at Nagpur, as he is to be hanged on his birthday, July 30. Memon did his M.A. in English Literature and Political Science in Nagpur jail through the Indira Gandhi National Open University. Yakub passed M.A. Political Science in December 2014 but the degree has not been conferred upon him so far