Berhampur: With the recent spate of brutal crimes against women, public demand for capital punishment and President Ram Nath Kovind’s suggestion against allowing mercy plea for POCSO convicts, the focus goes to the infrastructure to hang the convicts.
In Odisha, there are two jails equipped with gallows – Berhampur Circle Jail that witnessed the last execution in the state back in 1994 and Bolangir prison that has the facility to hang two convicts simultaneously but has never been used since independence.
The gallows at Berhampur Circle Jail in Ganjam district was set up in 1863 when the district was under Madras Presidency during the British rule. Many freedom fighters were lodged in this jail and later were hanged to death here. Freedom fighter Laxman Nayak was one of them. The British Government entangled him in various cases and eventually, he was sent to the gallows March 29, 1943.
The jail has still the gallows- an iron beam fixed on two iron poles. Six persons have so far been hanged here between 1943 and 1994.
The latest being Laxman Nayak of Mayurbhanj. He was convicted of murdering a seven years old girl after raping her in a jungle in February 1990. As the upper court upheld the verdict, Nayak was hanged to death in Berhampur Circle Jail July 16, 1994. And since then, none has brought to the gallows.
Yet the gallows are being maintained regularly from a specific fund, jail authority said. Same goes with the gallows at Bolangir prison which gets regular maintenance. That said, there are no hangmen in either of the jails. A hangman from Maharashtra was brought to hang Nayak back in 1994.
With several organisations batting against capital punishment and the rarity of the need, the government possibly considers it not important to appoint a trained hangman in these jails.