As the old proverb goes, “the hangman’s rope supports the hanged”, the executioner knows no matter how well he ties the noose, he’s no friend to the convict. It is one of the strangest, the most emotionally taxing jobs in the world. How’s life being an Indian hangman? What do they tell their wives when they ask “Honey, how was your day?”, Do they reply, “I hanged a sex offender to death today – put a cloth over his head, pulled the lever, and watched him come to rest like a lifeless pendulum!”? Let’s find out more about them. Kasab’s hangman didn’t know who he was about to hang Not only was the identity of Kasab’s executioner kept under wraps, apparently, the hangman, himself was kept in dark about the identity of the convict. As he waited at the Yerwada Jail, all he was told that a very high profile convict was being brought in. Kasab was taken to an isolated cell guarded by the ITBP personnel. It was only some minutes before the execution that the hangman came to know about the real identity of the convict brought in to be sent to the gallows by him.

The man who finally hanged Kasab

The contenders were many for being the one to hang Kasab but the one who was chosen goes by the name, Babu Jallad, a police constable. However, it was only recently that the world came to know about him as he arrived in Nagpur for the execution of another terrorism convict, Yakub Memon in July, 2015. Now, Babu Jallad is just a nickname given to a veteran executioner who had hanged many men, including Ajmal Kasab.

Not much is known about this Babu Jallad apart from the fact that he was plaid Rs. 5000 for the execution of Kasab in 2012. The execution had taken place in complete secrecy and Babu Jallad’s identity is was never really revealed.

The one who hanged a hundred men

Nata Mallick, the official hangman of Alipur Central Jail, Calcutta, had sent over a hundred men to the gallows in his lifetime. However, the most important assignment of his life was the execution of Dhananjay Chatterjee. He was guilty of raping and murdering Hetal Parekh, a girl merely in her teens. However, his conviction was based on circumstantial evidences which led him to spend 14 years behind bars while the trial continued – he never confessed his crime, either.

After serving 14 years already, the verdict was made in favor of his execution, sending a roar of debate over the nation and even Mallick, the executioner had expressed his dilemma at that time in a documentary filmed Josy Joseph. The film was withdrawn from the theater within three days on behest of the Bengal government. Mallick died at the ripe age of 89.