A jail in Buxar district of Bihar, known for its expertise in manufacturing execution ropes, has been directed to keep 10 pieces ready by the end of this week, triggering speculations that these might be meant for the 2012 Nirbhaya case convicts.
The Buxar jail, the only prison in the state having the required knowhow, received an instruction to the effect last week, though it was not known where these ropes -- strong with a short shelf-life -- would be dispatched.
"We received instructions from the prison directorate to keep 10 ropes ready by December 14. We do not know where these will be used. But the Buxar jail has a long tradition of manufacturing execution ropes," Buxar jail superintendent Vijay Kumar Arora told PTI-Bhasha over phone.
It takes about three days to prepare one rope and mainly involves manual labour, with a little use of motorised machinery, he said.
"It is from this jail a rope was sent for executing Parliament attack case-accused Afzal Guru. In 2016-17 we had also received orders from Patiala jail, though we do not know the purpose," Arora stated.
The last time when a rope was supplied from here, it was priced at Rs 1,725, he said.
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"The rate varies from time to time mainly on account of fluctuations in prices of iron and brass. These metals are used to make bushes that are fastened around the rope to ensure that the noose remains firm around the neck and the knot does not come undone when a human body is suspended from it," the jail superintendent explained.
Asked about the manpower required for the job, he said, "Normally five to six persons are engaged in making one rope. Yarns made of 152 strands of thread each are plaited together to come up with a rope of desired dimensions. Each rope uses up close to 7000 such strands," he said.
Meeting the deadline is not going to be a problem as there are sufficient number of able-bodies prisoners who can withstand the rigour as well as the experienced ones who can provide supervision and advice, Arora noted.
"One thing about these ropes is that if stored for long after manufacture, these become unfit for use," he added.
Speculation was rife in a section of the media that four convicts of the gang-rape case of December 16 2012, when a young woman died after being raped and brutalised inside a moving bus in Delhi, could be hanged later this month.
The recent sexual assault and murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad and the subsequent killing of the accused in a police encounter have evoked a fresh clamour -- including appeals by family members of the Delhi victim -- for the execution of the convicts whose death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court more than a year ago.
Last week, Vinay Sharma, one of the convicts in the Delhi gangrape case, had sought immediate withdrawal of his mercy plea from President Ram Nath Kovind, saying it was sent without his consent.
Incidentally, another convict in the case, Akshay Thakur, who worked as a cleaner on the bus, hails from Aurangabad district in Bihar.