Officials have confirmed that no hangman would be employed to execute the Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Kasab and instead the black cloth would be draped around his face by a policeman.

Swati Sathe, the headquarters DIG said that it is only the misconception bolstered by the movies that a person would be executed by a fierce hangman with merciless looks. Sathe had been the jailer of the Arthur Road prison earlier, before Kasab was lodged in the high-security jail.

The duty is performed by the police personnel usually constables or lower ranked people such as sipahis. They prepare the noose, the rope and putting the cloth on the head. As the manual of the prison suggests the superintendent of the jail should pull the bolt. Sathe added that if he was asked to conduct the execution he would do the same and not flinch while hanging Kasab.

Reports state the the last hanging in Maharashtra was over 17 years ago. The hanged man was Sudhakar Joshi a resident of Alibaug and was sent to the gallows in 1995 for killing three, his employer and two of his children. In 1992, Sukhdev Singh Sukha and Harjinder Singh Jinda who were involved in the assasination of former Army Chief General Arun Kumar Vaidya had been executed by a hangman for the last time.

Such executions were generally performed in Yerwada Jail pune and the Nagpur Central prison if they were to be carried out in Mumbai. Only time will tell whether he would be moved to these jails for the execution or if the ceremony would be performed at the Arthur Road Jail.

(AW- Anil)