Nirbhaya case: Jallad Pawan Kumar reports at Tihar jail, two days prior to Feb 1 execution

Two days ahead of the execution date of the Nirbhaya rape convicts, Jallad (executioner) Pawan Kumar has reported to  Tihar Jail on Thursday, according to ANI. Kumar who is the hangman from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut had been called by Tihar jail officials to perform the execution. He is currently being shown Tihar Jail No. 3 - execution venue and is set to perform dummy execution on Friday - the first by an executioner.

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Jallad arrives at Tihar

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Who is Pawan Kumar?

One of India's few registered hangmen - Pawan Kumar, who is a third-generation hangman - applied to be Tihar's next hangman after 26/11. While there have been three executions since 2011- Kumar is still waiting for his first execution. Kasab's execution which was done on November 2012, was carried out by a police constable in the Pune's Yerwada jail, while the 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's hanging was conducted under secrecy. Meanwhile, the same constable who hanged Ajmal Kasab was tapped to hang 1993 Bombay blast convict Yakub Memon at Nagpur Central jail on 30 July 2015.

India's last official hangman was Nata Mallick - who executed the hanging of Dhananjay Chatterjee in 2004 at Alipur Central jail, as per reports. Since India has witnessed only four executions in this century, India's biggest prison has never officially appointed a hangman. After Kasab's death sentence, Tihar jail sent for a job vacancy for a hangman, but no one applied.  

Nirbhaya case: Court issues notice to Tihar jail seeking report on convicts' plea for stay on execution

Nirbhaya case proceedings

Earlier in the day, Supreme Court dismissed the curative petition filed by the lawyer for one of the death row convicts of the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case – Akshay Singh. Meanwhile, a Delhi court issued notice to Tihar jail authorities on the plea seeking stay on their executions scheduled for February 1. Currently, SC has rejected all convicts review petition, the president has rejected one convicts' mercy plea and the Supreme Court has rejected three convicts' curative petition. The convicts are scheduled to hang on February 1.

Nirbhaya Case: SC dismisses Akshay's curative petition for stay on death sentence