Gag order on Memon funeral; media blacks out telecast

Not willing to take any chances, police here on Thursday issued a gag order to the media barring it from photographing and videographing the funeral procession and the last rites of hanged convict Yakub Memon.

The 13-hour gag order was issued by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) Sanjay Barkund from 11 a.m. till midnight of Thursday.

Following this, all TV channels voluntarily dissuaded from telecasting the funeral procession and the last rites.

Certain TV channels even flashed a notice, saying they would not telecast the funeral as Memon was a traitor and they would not make him a "hero" by publicizing his last rites.

The police order restraining the media said reports were received of "every likelihood of breach of peace and disturbance of public tranquillity and also there is a grave danger to human life, health and safety and injury to public property on that account".

The March 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts convict was executed at 6.35 a.m. in Nagpur on Thursday. His body was handed over to his family and flown to Mumbai by an air ambulance for the funeral rites. - IANS