New Delhi: There is no way that the perpetrators of Nirbhaya can escape conviction, but a strange problem is haunting the Tihar Jail officials as the jail does not have a hangman.
As per Times of India, Tihar officials have unofficially started contacting other jails to inquire if they have a hangman. They are also inquiring in a few villages in Uttar Pradesh where the last hangman hailed from, so as to execute this death penalty.
The execution may be conducted in a month, once the ‘Black Warrant’ is issued by the court sanctioning their execution. The warrant would be issued after rejection of their mercy petition by the President.
It is said that when Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was to be hanged, the development took place overnight and the Tihar administration was caught off-guard. At that time, a jail official had agreed to pull the lever, reported TOI. However, this time the officials want to avert this crisis.
It is said that the jail, even this time will not appoint a hangman, but depend on hired personnel on one-time contract basis. “Executions don’t happen often in our system as the death penalty is given in rarest of rare cases. So, having a full-time hangman is not viable. Also, it’s difficult to find a full-time employee for this job description,” a jail official told TOI.
This time, only one of the convicts, Vinay Sharma, filed the mercy petition. The Tihar administration forwarded it to the Delhi government, which sent it to the lieutenant governor recommending that the petition be rejected given the severity of the crime. “The LG will send the file to Union ministry of home affairs, which will present it before the President. The President’s decision will be conveyed to Tihar Jail, which will move court requesting a Black Warrant if the petition is rejected,” a government official is quoted in TOI. After the Black Warrant is issued, jail officials will inform the convicts and their families about their execution.
The other convicts — Mukesh, Pawan, and Akshay did not file the mercy petition despite the Tihar administration giving them a week’s time.
Sharma, Mukesh, Pawan, Akshay, Ram Singh and a juvenile had gang-raped and murdered a medical student inside a moving bus in south Delhi’s Vasant Vihar in December 2012. Supreme Court had upheld their death penalty last year.
