Pawan Jallad, the certified hangman from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut, has finally executed the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case. Delayed for seven years, three months and four days later, justice was finally delivered to Nirbhaya and her family. The 57-year-old hangman expressed his happiness over the execution at Tihar Jail. A professional hangman, Pawan Jallad is attached to the Meerut jail and gets Rs 3,000 a month. He was specifically chosen for the execution of Nirbhaya convicts as authorities said that only he can achieve error-free hanging. Before the March 20 execution, Pawan Jallad had carried out numerous dummy hangings with sandbags, which weighed exactly the same as the death row convicts. According to reports, Pawan will be paid Rs 60,000 - Rs 15,000 per each convict- for performing his duty.
Pawan stays with his family on the outskirts of Meerut. His younger son is also planning to follow the family's tradition. The 23-year-old paramedic student who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before she was thrown out on the road. Her friend who was with her was also severely beaten and thrown out along with her. She was so severely violated that she died in a Singapore hospital after battling for her life for a fortnight. Six people, including the four convicts and the juvenile, were named as accused.
While one of the accused Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case, another was found to be a juvenile at the time of the crime. He was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home. After the execution, Nirbhaya's mother told reporters that justice has finally been done and women will feel safer now. "We will request the Supreme Court to issue guidelines so that no one can adopt delaying tactics in such cases in future," she said at her house. "Our wait for justice was painful and agonising. We appeal for observing this day as Nirbhaya 'Nyay Diwas' (day of justice)," Nirbhaya's father said.
(With agency inputs)