Nirbhaya rapists' execution: Tihar looks for 2 hangmen

Amid reports that the four Nirbhaya convicts could be executed soon, the Tihar jail administration has asked UP prison officials for two hangmen.

UP's Additional Director General (Jail) Anand Kumar on Thursday said that the state government has received a letter from Tihar jail administration to provide two hangmen.

Presently there were two certified hangmen in UP's prisons -- one in Meerut jail, the other one in Lucknow jail.

The letter did not say who was to be executed and when was it planned, sources said.

Sources said that Pawan 'jallad' (hangman), one of the certified hangmen, was being sent to Tihar.

''The other hangman will also be sent if required,'' said a jail official here.

Fifty-five-year-old Pawan, a resident of Meerut town, about 450 kilometres from here, belonged a family of hangmen for four generations.

One of the convicts, Akshay Kumar Singh, has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court. It was likely to be heard on Tuesday.

Earlier, the Centre, as well as the Delhi government, rejected the mercy petitions of all the four accused.

Nirbhaya, a paramedic student, was brutally raped and tortured by five people, including a juvenile, in a moving bus in December 2012. She died at the hospital 13 days later. The incident had triggered a nationwide outrage.