Yama's Not Here

Only Shobhit Chamar knows how he spends his days and nights. Living on the verge of death for the past seven years and 10 months, he can hardly differentiate day from night. For him, everything is dark and he knows that all he's left with is a little life. In a solitary stone-floor cell in Bhagalpur Central Jail, this condemned prisoner is languishing since February 23, 1996, after being awarded capital punishment first by the district judge of Rohtas, then by the Patna High Court and ultimately by the Supreme Court. This cobbler from Tirojpur Durgawati village in Bhabua district is guilty of murder. His death penalty is confirmed: hanging by neck till death. And he believes his petition for presidential pardon will be rejected. Yet, the wait for death seems unending. Reason: there is no one who can prepare and tighten the noose around his neck and then pull the lever to complete the hanging. Bhagalpur Central Jail has no hangman.

Also waiting in death row are Veer Kunwar Paswan, Krishna Mochi, Nandlal Mochi, Dharmender alias Dharo Chamar, all from Gaya, who have been sentenced by a TADA court for involvement in a massacre and awaiting the gallows in Bhagalpur since July 8, 2001. These five, whose sentences have been confirmed by the apex court, are among the 36 condemned prisoners in this jail. The cases of others are pending before either the high court or the Supreme Court. Bhagalpur is the only prison, shared by Bihar and Jharkhand, where condemned prisoners are kept. But for the past four years, no one has been executed. The last hangman from Babupur village in Bhagalpur is now dead. Jail authorities are looking for a suitable replacement. Says minister of state for jails Ashok Choudhary: "There's no provision to keep a hangman as permanent employee." A hangman is called, he says, when he's needed.

IG (prisons) Ravikant, however, says "none of the condemned prisoners are ready for execution" because their petitions are still pending before the President or the courts. Adds he: "If the situation arises we'll hire a hangman." Ravikant recalls that in 1996 a hangman had been hired to perform an execution. He, however, isn't aware that the man is no more. Who qualifies to be a hangman? Says the IG: "Anybody who's willing to do the job." He refutes rumours about moves to execute by injecting poison.

Bhagalpur Central Jail needs a hangman because already there are 36 condemned prisoners lodged there and the number will only grow. The authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to provide basic amenities to the prisoners as per the jail manual. The same holds true for prison security. Ravikant, however, says Bhagalpur jail is fully equipped to keep at least these 36 condemned prisoners in solitary confinement.

Sometimes the Rashtrapati Bhavan too takes a painfully long time to decided on mercy petitions. Shobhit's plea is lying there since 1996. Dhananjay Chatterjee is another prisoner whose petition filed in 1994 has been rejected and he is awaiting death in Calcutta's Alipore Central Jail. It will possibly be 83-year-old Nata Mallik who will execute the order. Mallik, who tightened the noose around the neck of a prisoner the day he was scheduled to tie the nuptial knot, is a professional hangman and inherited this skill from his grandfather and father who migrated from Bihar to settle in Calcutta.

Gaya-based lawyer and pucl member Prabhat Kumar Shandilya gives a new twist to the very concept of capital punishment. He points out that people from lower castes, tribals and minorities are awarded death penalties and no upper-caste culprit has ever gone to the gallows after Independence, except, perhaps, for Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte. "It's like 100 per cent reservation for the lower castes and minorities in this system," says Shandilya.