Buxar jail to supply ropes for 1st woman facing the gallows

PATNA: The Buxar central jail is set to create a history of sorts by supplying the death ropes for the execution of the first woman convict in the country after independence at the Mathura district jail.
Shabnam Ali, 38, was convicted and awarded capital punishment on the charges of killing seven members of her family, including her father, mother, sister in-law, cousin and 10-month old nephew, by slitting their throats at Omraha village in Meerut district in April 2008, for defiance over her marriage with one Saleem.
Deputy superintendent of Buxar central jail, Tribhuvan Singh, said on Thursday that the authorities had received the requisition for a pair of hanging ropes from the Mathura district jail on Monday. However, no specific time was mentioned for the supply of the ropes in the letter.
“A few inmates adept at making the hanging ropes have been put on alert. Since there is scarcity of a special kind of brass required for the purpose, it will take a couple of days to meet the demand from the jail concerned,” he told this newspaper over the phone on Thursday.
The prison officials swung into action soon after the requisition for the ropes, which are supplied to the jails across the country from Buxar, was received. A particular type of yarn called J-34 is required for making the hanging ropes. Suppliers from Punjab provide the raw material to the Buxar jail as the cotton for making the yarn is cultivated there.
Singh revealed that the price of the 16-foot-long ropes being prepared on the demand of the Mathura jail superintendent would depend on their weight. “Once the payment is received, the ropes will be sent to the authorities concerned under tight security arrangements,” he added.
Jail superintendent Rajiv Kumar is stated to be on leave after being infected with coronavirus. “The jail superintendent is in quarantine and is expected to assume duty in a day or two,” another official posted at the Buxar central jail said.
IG (prisons and correctional services) Mithilesh Mishra claimed that the officials of the Buxar central jail were already on the job. “Whenever there is a demand for hanging ropes, the Buxar jail is assigned the task,” he added.
Mishra recalled that hanging ropes were also supplied to the Tihar central jail in 2019 for the execution of four gang rape-cum-murder convicts of Nirbhaya.
According to records available with the prison department, the hanging ropes were earlier supplied to the jails in Maharashtra in 1981, 2012 and 2013, West Bengal in 1990 and 2004, Bhagalpur in 1995, Andhra Pradesh in 2003 and Delhi in 2019.