New Delhi, May 29: The country’s lone hangman is no more. Mammu jallad whose life’s ambition was to hang Parliament-attack convict Afzal Guru and Mumbai-attacks convict Amir Ajmal Kasab, breathed his last at his hometown Meerut, in the week gone by, his last wish to put the duo to the gallows remaining unfulfilled.
Ironically, the matter of his death came to notice only when Tihar Jail authorities started preparing the gallows for Davinder Pal Singh Bhuller and Mahender Das.
Bhuller is convicted of terrorist activities in Punjab and Delhi, and Mahender Das sentenced to death in a murder case in Assam. The President of India on Wednesday rejected the mercy petition of both the convicts paving the way for their execution.
Mammu had expressed his wish to hang Afzal and Kasab in public view, if given permission, to “send a strong message to the world that enemies of the country will meet a similar fate”.
Mammu jallad, who died on May 19, 2011, had been confirmed in his post by Rajesh Kumar Sachan deputy Superintendent of Meerut Jail.
“He is dead. Now the UP Directorate of Prisons has asked his son Pawan to apply for the job. So far, no one from Tihar or Assam Jail has approached us,” said a source at Meerut Jail.
Tihar Jail sources said that they learnt that Mammu is no more and now the problem will arise for scouting for another hangman since Mammu was the only hangman in the NCR area, and most probably the country.
“Yes, if need be we will definitely approach the family of Mammu jallad. We are now waiting for the paper work which itself will take long. Then we will inform the schedule to family members of the convict,” said a Tihar Jail source.
An employee of Uttar Pradesh Directorate of Prisons, Mammu lived with his family in the narrow lanes of TP Nagar in Meerut and had so far executed more than a dozen convicts.
According to sources, 66-year-old Mammu who succumbed to prolonged illness had expressed his keen desire by appealing to the Government to conclude the trial of both the accused Kasab and Afzal Guru, so that he could hang them before he died.
“It is my last wish to execute Kasab and Afzal. I am old; I can breathe my last anytime. I want to hang the duo as soon as possible,” Mammu had told The Pioneer in an interview after Kasab was convicted by a Mumbai CBI court.
Mammu jallad belonged to a family of hangmen. His grandfather Ram Rakh, a hangman during the British rule, had put to gallows Shaheed Bhagat Singh, a matter of great shame and embarrassment for this family of hangmen. When alive, Mammu had said that he felt ashamed because his grandfather was responsible for hanging the legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. But in the same breath, he had stated that he would be privileged if he is called for hanging Kasab and Afzal. This he said would be ‘atonement’ for the ‘folly’ of his grandfather who had hanged Shaheed Bhagat Singh. His father Kalu also had served as the jallad. Being a tradition he also joined the same profession. His next generation Pawan is likely to be appointed said a source in Meerut jail for which application has been sought.
Mammu is the son of hangman Kallu who had hanged Indira Gandhi’s assassins, Kehar Singh and Satwant Singh. The father-son duo had also hanged Ranga and Billa, convicted for the killing of Geeta and Sanjay Chopra in 1981.
–Agencies–