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.

Waiting for the first execution

Nobody teaches you to be a hangman – you must learn the trade of hanging convicts on your own. Take, Pawan Kumar for instance. One of the few officially registered hangmen in the country, the 52 year old is yet to get his hands dirty. However, Kumar knows his phone might ring anytime and he’d have to be ready to send the convict down the abyss. So, he keeps practicing with a bag of sand that weighs as much as a human.

He has been called to play Jallad on several occasions but every time, the execution was cancelled or postponed. This part-time clothes hawker from Meerut, as he says, has been waiting all his life for the moment of hanging his convict. He had mentioned the above mentioned facts about his life on an interview to The Guardian in 2014.

The pride and honor of hanging Ajmal Kasab

According to a report by Telegraph, there had been a rise in applications for the post of the official hangman because of the honor and status that’d come with hanging Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist who was caught alive on 26/11. A 38 year old property dealer, Rajiv Thandon nominated himself by appealing for the post directly to the President.

However, the most credible choice and an eager applicant was Mammu Singh, a veteran executioner who believes has learnt the art of smoothing the rope by applying soap and oil to it so that hanging is smooth and swift. However, it wasn’t Singh who eventually managed to bag the job because the 66 year old succumbed to his illness on May 19,2011.