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Delhi gang rape case: UP hangman on standby for execution of convicts
UP prison authorities kept Pawan Kumar, a hangmen from Meerut, on standby after a request from Tihar jail officials last month.
Pawan Kumar, 55, a hangman from Uttar Pradesh, has been kept on standby for hanging the four convicts of the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case after a Delhi court on Tuesday issued their death warrants, UP prison officials said.
The court has fixed January 22 as the day for the hangings.
Director general of UP Prison Administration and Reforms, Anand Kumar said, “We kept Pawan Kumar, a hangmen from Meerut, on standby since we had received a request from Tihar jail officials on December 9, 2019. We have not received any fresh request after issuance of the death warrant. Pawan will be sent for the execution if he is needed.”
Anand Kumar said the state prison administration has another hangman named Ahmadullah in Lucknow district jail but he is indisposed.
The UP hangmen came in the limelight after issuance of the death warrant to the 2012 Delhi gang rape convicts.
Tihar jail authorities had written to UP prison authorities seeking services of two hangmen of the state. The letter mentioned that the two hangmen’s services could be required, as some convicts in Tihar jail, who were awarded capital punishment, had exhausted their legal and constitutional remedies, and were now to be hanged.
A father of five daughters and two sons, Pawn told media persons in Meerut that executing the rapists will give him satisfaction “because they committed the most heinous crime with an innocent girl.”
He said he had not received any official communication yet, but “I am ready for it.”
On preparations for the hanging, he said “I need to check the rope, wooden platform and other things as per the weight of those who will be hanged. I have the courage to hang all four together.”
Pawan’s original name is Sindhi Ram. His father Mammu Singh and grandfather Kallu Jallad were also executioners. Kallu Jallad hanged the killers of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He claims to have assisted his grandfather in executions but hasn’t yet carried out one by himself so far.
Pawan is looking forward to carry out his first execution but rues his meagre stipend -- ₹5,000 per month. He has demanded that his stipend be raised to ₹20,000.
In September 2013, a trial court in Delhi convicted four men raping a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus while she was on her way back home on December 16, 2012. She later died of her injuries but the brutal gang rape sparked nationwide fury that led to a new legislation to deal with such heinous crimes. Of the six accused, one was a minor, who was sent to a rehabilitation centre and another, Ram Singh who was the driver of the bus, committed suicide in Tihar Jail during the trial.
