Tihar jail prepares to hang December 16 convicts, all the four convicts to be hanged simultaneously for the first time in history

The phansi
kotha (hanging courtyard) inside Delhi’s Tihar jail, which had a provision to
hang only two persons at a time, has now been redone to accommodate four
hangings simultaneously, a prison officer said.

Prison
officers made the changes a few days ago as part of the preparations for the
hanging of the four convicts of the December 16, 2012 gang-rape and murder
case, who are set to be executed on January 22 following a city court’s order.

This will be
the first time in the jail’s history when four death row convicts will be
hanged at the same time. On Sunday, officials also held mock hanging sessions
using sandbags with new ropes that they had bought last month.

Before this,
the prison administration noted the weights of the four convicts and prepared
the sandbags based on their weight.

A city court
had issued a death warrant for the execution of the four convicts – Mukesh
Singh, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Akshay Thakur and Vinay Sharma, to be held on January
22. The execution will take place inside jail number 3, where the prison’s
hanging courtyard is located.

The four men
lodged in two different jails inside Tihar are likely to be shifted to jail
number 3 where they will be hanged on January 22, senior prison officers said.

As of now,
the four men are lodged alone but separately in high-risk cells. Each of them
is virtually monitored by two CCTV cameras. In addition two to three jail
guards watch over them round-the-clock.

A third
officer, said that the Uttar Pradesh prison’s department has confirmed that
they can send the Meerut hangman, Pawan Kumar, for the execution. A few days
before the hanging, Kumar will visit Tihar jail and inspect the preparations.