Bhagalpur, May 30: Prajeet Singh, guilty of the 1998 murders of three children in Bettiah, is relieved with a stay order on his black warrant, but his hangman, Damodar, is feeling no better.

Prajeet’s warrant was stayed following a petition filed by him for a sentence “review” which was passed by Patna High Court bench of Justice Mridula Mishra. His temporary relief makes little difference to 53-year-old Damodar, who knows that he was re-absorbed in his previous job as a Bhagalpur jail sweeper as he agreed to be its hangman as well.

A resident of Choti Parbatta under Naugachiya police station in Bhagalpur, Damodar has acted as the hangman twice before in 1988 — for the Paramhansh and Vola Sha cases. The authorities retrenched him in 1993.

“Then I went back to my village and started farming. But, jail officers traced me and re-appointed me recently. They have assured me of a permanent post as the hangman,” he said.

His steady voice makes it clear that for him this is just another job that pays the bills. Recently, he went through a “drill” with the help of a Manila rope prepared in the Buxar central jail (Bihar), with fibres imported from Philippines.

“I will act according to my instructions. I won’t regret my act, as I would just be following legal norms,” says the tough man.

In the same prison there are 19 men still waiting to receive their final orders, with their mercy petitions pending with the President. The last execution in Bhagalpur central jail was in 1995 of one Suresh Bahri. The jail sweeper, late Jagua Dom, executed the hanging.

Human rights activists were shocked after they found out that Jagua was induced into the act with the lure of liquor and they called it “exploitative”. In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Jagua’s nephew accepted that his uncle “became withdrawn” after the execution.

Brutal or not, there have been many applicants for the hangman’s job, including a youth from Madhuvani district who had a masters degree to his credit.

Prajeet received capital punishment from Bettiah district and sessions court for killing the three children of his neighbour on April 18, 1998, at the Mirjatola locality on Supriya Road.

The superintendent of the Bhagalpur central jail, Uma Kant Sharan, confirmed that Prajeet was still being kept under “close observation” in a special isolation ward (number 30) near the gallows.

In a bid to change his fate, he sent a mercy petition to the President. Prajeet’s father Rambarai Singh and mother Kanti Devi with relatives hailing from Indragachhi under Sangrampur police station, East Champaran, called on him on April 28, 2008.

“The atmosphere was heavy as the family shared more than half-an-hour with Prajeet,” said a jail guard.