Why Pawan Jallad was the first choice for hanging Nirbhaya convicts

New Delhi: The four perpetrators of Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case - Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma - were hanged at 5.30 am at Delhi's Tihar Jail today (March 20, 2020). The execution was carried out by Pawan also known as Pawan Jallad from UP's Meerut. 

The reason why Pawan was chosen is because he is a professional executioner like his father and the previous three generations, and has learned the details of executing a hanging from them. Pawan has inherited the work of executioner from his forefathers. Jail officials say his work is good and that leaves no scope of him making an error during the hanging.

Pawan, unlike the portrayal of executioners in Hindi films, is like a common man, with a wife and children. Although he has been facing a difficult economic situation in his life, his family is proud of his work. Pawan's younger son, too, wants to be associated with the executioner's name throughout his life.

The four convicts - Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma - were hanged on Friday morning (March 20, 2020) at 5:30 am nearly seven-and half years after gang-raping and murdering a young medical student on a moving bus in Delhi. In the last few months, all the four employed every legal loophole available to delay their hanging by filing mercy petitions and curative petitions on one flimsy ground after another.

But finally, the heinous crime saga that started on December 16, 2012, with six people abducting, gang-raping and then brutalising Nirbhaya so badly that she died on December 29, 2012, came to an end with the execution. One accused Ram Singh had committed suicide during the trial on March 11, 2013, inside Tihar Jail while a minor involved in the crime was set free after spending three years in a juvenile home.