LUCKNOW: Amid speculations that Nirbhaya's perpetrators would be hanged once one of their review petitions against death penalty is heard in SC on December 17, the hangman at the Meerut prison indicated that he was ready to carry out their execution in Tihar after their conviction in the rape and murder case of Nirbhaya on December 16, 2012.
A Delhi court will hear a plea seeking issuance of death warrants against the four people convicted in the Nirbhaya gang rape-and-murder case on Wednesday.
Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora had deferred the matter till December 18, noting that the review petition of one of the convicts (Akshay Kumar) was pending before the Supreme Court for Tuesday.
The court has been hearing a plea from Nibhaya's parents seeking to expedite the process to execute the convicts.
Pawan Jallad shared that his grandfather had carried out the hanging of the two men – Beant Singh and Satwant Singh -- involved in the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
However, giving weight to speculations about the possible execution of four convicts, Additional Director General (Prisons) Anand Kumar confirmed that Delhi's Tihar Jail had sent out a request to UP jail administration to arrange hangmen.
The ADG claimed that UP jail administration was asked by the Tihar jail authorities to provide two hangmen at short notice, but one of them was unwell and in Lucknow, the other one in Meerut had been asked to be prepared for the call.
Pawan Jallad, 55, said though unaware of the identity of the convicts, he was prepared to go to Tihar at 24-hour notice. However, he claimed that he was aware of the Nirbhaya case as it had hit the headlines in 2012.
Pawan Jallad said his father Babbhu and grandfather Kallu were also hangmen. He claimed to have helped his grandfather in five executions.
Pawan Jallad said his grandfather had carried out the hanging of the two men involved in the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Preparations
On preparations before any execution, Pawan Jallad said that the primary pre-requisites included the checking of the rope’s strength and the platform needed for hanging besides attending to the lever used for it. He added that the actual preparation was undertaken two to three hours before an execution early in the morning.
Jallad denied having any pressure as he would become a medium to punish those who had committed the most heinous crimes.
The four convicts in the Nirbhaya case -- Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh and Vinay Sharma – have been on the death row for two years.
The apex court had on July 9, last year, dismissed the review pleas filed by the three convicts – Mukesh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma -- saying no grounds were made out by them for review of the 2017 verdict.
Six people were convicted for brutally raping and murdering the 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus while she was on her way back home on December 16, 2012.
Of the six people convicted in the case, one was a minor, who was sent to a juvenile rehabilitation centre. He had come out after servicing three years there. Another convict Ram Singh had committed suicide in the Tihar Jail.