Yakub Memon death sentence: Hear it from a hangman

New Delhi, July 16: Finding a hangman for an execution is always a tough job. Nata Mullik was probably one of the last known dedicated hangman in the country.

After him there have been many who have been reluctant to take up the job and this has led to a dearth of hangmen in the country.Yakub Memon hanging will be carried out by a member of the Nagpur jail. There is no longer any dedicated hangman in the country and this is not a job that any wants to take up.

Moreover the number of death sentences have reduced and as per the rules a hangman will be paid Rs 5,000 per execution which makes the job even less lucrative.

The life of a hangman:

The last execution that the state of Maharashtra saw was when Ajmal Kasab was hanged. The execution was carried out by a member of the Yerawada jail in Pune. This was because the the only hangman in Maharashtra, Jhadhav had retired in the year 1995.

The age of retirement for a hangman is 58 years, but in various cases the governments have extended their tenure only because it is hard to get hangmen. In some cases, hangmen have been called on special duty to carry out an execution.

A hangman from Belagavi informed OneIndia that it is a thankless job. It is not easy to carry out an execution. After all it amounts to taking a life and we feel very remorseful about it. To top it all the amounts that is paid by the government is Rs 5,000, he also adds.

A tough job out there:

The hangman says that it is a tough job. The person to be hanged may be a hardened criminal but it is still difficult to take out a life. Moreover there is a great amount of precision that is involved in an execution and there can be never be any room for error.

The preparations start 15 days in advance. There are many trials with a dummy where the rope and the lever is checked. We need to ensure that the convict does not feel any pain while be executed.
The preparation of the rope is the most difficult the hangman says. It needs to strong and also ghee, soap and banana squashed is applied on it.

Nagpur readies for execution:

The Nagpur jail is now readying for the execution of Yakub Memon provided the Supreme Court does not interfere with his curative petition. This will be the first hanging at Nagpur since 1984.

The Nagpur jail does not have a dedicated hangman. The last hangman to have executed the job was in 1984 when two brothers (Wankhedes) were hanged for murder. However this time around the Nagpur jail authorities have been training one prison official.

There is no hard and fast rule that an execution has to be carried out by a dedicated hangman and even officials can do the job after adequate preparations.

OneIndia News