Dhananjoy hanging set for Aug 14 (his B-day); hangman gets a deal

Ironically, Dhananjoy will hang on his birthday. Dummy runs for the hanging have started with sand bags at the Alipore Central Jail.

If the government today sealed Dhananjoy’s fate, it also granted his hangman-to-be his one major wish: a permanent job.

A letter confirming his grandson’s appointment as a government hangman was handed over to veteran hangman Nata Mallick. As per the Left Front government’s new recruitment policy, the grandson too will be on contract and it will be renewed every year.

The Mallicks have been hangmen for three generations. Nata’s grandfather had carried out the execution of Master Surya Sen who led the attack on Chittagong armoury in the mid ’30s.

Announcing the date for Dhananjoy’s hanging, Joydeb Chakrabarty, IG (Prisons), said said all arrangements had been made. He said Dhananjoy was in perfect health, scotching rumours that the convict has stopped taking food and was unwell. ‘‘There is no legal hurdle in the way of execution,’’ Chakrabarty said. A representative from district magistrate’s office in Alipore, South 24 Parganas, the jail superintendent and a jail doctor would be present during execution. Relatives of Dhananjoy may be allowed should they want to be present. If Dhananjoy’s relatives agree, they will be handed his body. Should they refuse then the jail department and police would arrange for his last rites, Chakraborty said.

Police pickets have been posted in Dhananjoy’s village where his family threatened to end their lives. It’s learnt that several NGOs are planning to move Supreme Court tomorrow. The NGOs declined to disclose the grounds on which a last attempt is being made to stall the hanging. But Colin Gonzalves is likely to move a fresh petition tomorrow, said Sujato Bhadra of Association for Protection of Democratic Rights in Kolkata.