Dec 16 gang rape convicts’ hangman reports for duty at Tihar jail

Sindhi Ram, who also goes by the monicker Pawan Jallad, is a resident of Meerut who has been brought to the national Capital to execute the men on February 1, and reportedly visited the hanging courtyard inside jail number 3.

The hangman from the Uttar Pradesh prisons department, tasked with executing the four convicts of the December 2012 gang-rape case, reported for ‘work’ at Delhi’s Tihar jail on Thursday afternoon. Sindhi Ram, who also goes by the monicker Pawan Jallad, is a resident of Meerut who has been brought to the national Capital to execute the men on February 1, and reportedly visited the hanging courtyard inside jail number 3.

The hangman from the Uttar Pradesh prisons department, tasked with executing the four convicts of the December 2012 gang-rape case, reported for ‘work’ at Delhi’s Tihar jail on Thursday afternoon.

Prisons officers said Pawan will be paid ₹15,000 for each hanging. If all four men are hanged on February 1, he will be paid ₹60,000, a senior prison officer who did not wish to be named, said.

“He checked the hanging courtyard and arrangements made by jail authorities. The gallows were redone to execute the four at the same time. Earlier, only two persons could be executed at one time. Though this is the first time he will be executing someone, he seems to be well prepared. He checked the ropes and the machine that will be used for the hanging,” a senior prisoner officer said.

Pawan, a father of five daughters and two sons, lives in Kashiram colony of Lohia Nagar locality near Meerut town. His father, Mammu Singh and grandfather, Kallu Jallad, were also hangmen. His great-grandfather was also a hangman during the British rule, he had earlier told Hindustan Times.

The four men — Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Kumar Gupta (25), Akshay Thakur (31) and Vinay Sharma (26), are on death row for the gang-rape and assault of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student inside a moving bus on December 16, 2012. The young woman died in a hospital in Singapore on December 29.

While Singh’s mercy petition has been rejected, Thakur and Gupta are yet to file one, and Sharma’s plea is pending before President Ram Nath Kovind.

The President of India has the power to commute the death sentence awarded to a convict.