Buxar Jail’s rope back in play!

Darpan Singh

Patna, October 15
Jaish-e-Mohammed militant Mohammad Afzal’s possible hanging on October 20 in the parliament attack case may have spurred a national debate, but there is none whatsoever about the rope the hangman will use. No prizes for guessing — it will be the Manilla rope. The irony of sorts, however, is that inmates of the Buxar Central Jail spin this rope.Hindustan Times had carried a report (Buxar’s rope trick that hangs, dated September 29) in this connection, though the jail authorities there were in a denial mode. But, it’s official now. On Friday night, a special team from Tihar Central Jail, New Delhi, led by its deputy superintendent Anjani Kumar, reached Buxar Central Jail and procured the special rope, which is said to be 60 feet long and weighs 3.75 kg. The special team, which left for Delhi the same night, is said to have told the Central Jail officials there that the ‘consignment’ would be used if Afzal were to be hanged at Tihar.While the superintendent of Buxar Jail has confirmed this, his deputy Rajesh Kumar Singh quoted a Tihar Central Jail official as saying, “Though the clemency appeal is pending with the President, we do not want to leave anything to chance and are making all arrangements as it’s a high-profile case.” When contacted by HT, Rajesh said a board consisting of Tihar Central Jail officials had earlier been constituted to procure the consignment and the entire process was kept so confidential that even the jail superintendent (Tihar) was reportedly unaware of it. After the HT had carried the report, the Buxar jail authorities ‘briefed’ a section of the Press that the production of the special rope had stopped long time back and that it would not be supplied to the Tihar Central Jail, as they had not received any order for the same. Now, they are also admitting that a consignment of rope was sent from here in 2004 to hang child rapist Dhananjay Chatterjee at Alipore jail, Kolkata.