The state of Telangana does not seem to have any gallows to hang Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and four other terrorists, who were awarded the death sentence by a special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for involvement in the 2013 Dilshukhnagar blasts that killed 18 people and injured 131.
Infact, none of the prisons in Hyderabad or Telangana or the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh have gallows to hang the five terrorists and, therefore, the states did not bother to fill the vacancy of a hangman either. The reason is that there have been no death sentences executed in these prisons since 1978, the Deccan Chronicle reported.
The daily quoted officials as saying that every state has gallows in the central prisons.
"But Telangana is a strange case. It's not a rule, but there is a norm which requires gallows in each state. Perhaps, it's because the last death sentence carried out here was before 1978... It may be also be because it is a new state and authorities concerned may have not paid attention to facilities until they were required to do so," a senior official said.
Musheerabad's Secunderabad Central Jail had this facility during the British regime but it was demolished along with the prison in 2003 to construct the Gandhi Hospital. The jail, however, was shifted to the city's outskirts in Cherlapalli, which currently lodges the five terrorists.
"We have no facility for hanging prisoners because we have not come across such cases in a long time. Though we have modernised our prisons, gallows are absent in all the prisons," A Narasimha, Telangana IGP, told the Hindustan Times.
Rajahmundry and Visakhapatnam central jails were the only prisons that had gallows before Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated.
"We had submitted a proposal to move Warangal and Chanchalguda prisons to different buildings from the current sites. We had also requested to set up gallows. But the proposal has not been approved yet. If the jails are moved, there will be gallows in the premises," prisons chief V K Singh told Deccan Chronicle.
According to HT, inquiries stated that around 92 executions have been carried out in these three prisons — 42 executions in Rajahmundry Central Jail, 32 executions in Secunderabad Central Jail and 18 executions in Visakhapatnam Central Jail.
Narasimha, however, said that they were ready to construct makeshift gallows to hang Bhatkal and the four other terrorists if their death sentence got confirmed.
"We need just a week's time to make the arrangements. As far as a hangman is concerned, we might get one from another state on deputation," he said.
