<p>This question popped up on Thursday after 22-year-old Kasab was ordered by a Mumbai trial court to be hanged by the neck until death since not a single hangman is on jail rolls.<br />Maharashtra, whose capital Mumbai suffered the country’s worst terror attack in 2008, does not have a hangman.<br /><br />The story is the same be it in the national capital’s Tihar jail where the last hanging was carried out in 1989 or in West Bengal which executed a capital punishment in 2004.<br />“We had always borrowed hangman from other prisons. Anyone who volunteers for the job can do it. Even if there is no hangman to be found, any police officer from the rank of a constable can also do it if he volunteers,” a Tihar Jail official said.<br />Legally, the government can appoint a hangman either for a short-term basis or as a permanent appointee.<br /><br />“If there is such a problem, it is only temporary. The government can either appoint someone on a short-term basis or permanently. <br /><br />Moreover, any jail official can also do the job if he wishes,” G Venkatesh Rao, senior Supreme Court lawyer, who was also involved in the Indira Gandhi assassination case said.<br />The latest case of execution was of Dhananjay Chatterjee who killed 14-year-old Hetal Parikh on March 5, 1990 at her apartment residence in Bhowanipur. <br /><br />Chatterjee was kept at Alipore Jail for 14 years before his mercy plea was rejected by former President A P J Abdul Kalam and he was hanged to death on August 14, 2004.<br />He was executed by the 87-year old hangman Nata Mullick in West Bengal. Mullick, whose father Shibal Mullick was a hangman in the British colonial days, died in December 2009.<br />Major jails across India face an acute shortage of trained hangmen. Only men are employed for this job and the candidate has to be above 5 feet 4 inches tall.<br />PTI</p>
<p>This question popped up on Thursday after 22-year-old Kasab was ordered by a Mumbai trial court to be hanged by the neck until death since not a single hangman is on jail rolls.<br />Maharashtra, whose capital Mumbai suffered the country’s worst terror attack in 2008, does not have a hangman.<br /><br />The story is the same be it in the national capital’s Tihar jail where the last hanging was carried out in 1989 or in West Bengal which executed a capital punishment in 2004.<br />“We had always borrowed hangman from other prisons. Anyone who volunteers for the job can do it. Even if there is no hangman to be found, any police officer from the rank of a constable can also do it if he volunteers,” a Tihar Jail official said.<br />Legally, the government can appoint a hangman either for a short-term basis or as a permanent appointee.<br /><br />“If there is such a problem, it is only temporary. The government can either appoint someone on a short-term basis or permanently. <br /><br />Moreover, any jail official can also do the job if he wishes,” G Venkatesh Rao, senior Supreme Court lawyer, who was also involved in the Indira Gandhi assassination case said.<br />The latest case of execution was of Dhananjay Chatterjee who killed 14-year-old Hetal Parikh on March 5, 1990 at her apartment residence in Bhowanipur. <br /><br />Chatterjee was kept at Alipore Jail for 14 years before his mercy plea was rejected by former President A P J Abdul Kalam and he was hanged to death on August 14, 2004.<br />He was executed by the 87-year old hangman Nata Mullick in West Bengal. Mullick, whose father Shibal Mullick was a hangman in the British colonial days, died in December 2009.<br />Major jails across India face an acute shortage of trained hangmen. Only men are employed for this job and the candidate has to be above 5 feet 4 inches tall.<br />PTI</p>