For first time in my life, I’m happy to execute convicts: Jallad

TNN & AGENCIES

New Delhi/Meerut 21.03.2020

: Pawan Jallad, 57, has become the only hangman in the history of the country to execute four convicts in one go. Incidentally, these were his maiden executions. Pawan, a fourth-generation hangman from Meerut, missed an “opportunity” four years ago when high court commuted Surinder Koli’s death sentence to life imprisonment in the Nithari case.

Following the hanging of four Nirbhaya convicts in Tihar Jail at dawn on Friday, Pawan said, “For the first time in my life, I’m happy to execute four convicts. I had been waiting for this day for long. I thank God and the Tihar Jail administration.”

The hanging, which was scheduled to take place on January 22, was deferred multiple times before it finally took place on March 20. According to UP jail officials in Meerut, a team from Tihar Jail administration had come down to the district on March 17 to take Pawan to Delhi for the preparations of the hanging.

Prison authorities in Uttar Pradesh have two hangmen, one in Meerut and the other in Lucknow, on retainership basis. Tihar administration had earlier this year written to UP jail administration requesting services of a hangman. Pawan, who gets a monthly stipend of ₹5,000, was chosen for the job.

He has never imagined being anything else and has wanted to be a hangman since he was a child. Pawan has witnessed hanging since he was an adolescent.

Full report on www.toi.in