Buxar Central Jail

Inmates of the Buxar central jail are working overtime to meet the demand for 17 Manila ropes, ordered for executing convicts awarded death sentences.

The jail is perhaps the only in the country that prepares and supplies the special wax-coated ropes meant for executions. Convicts lodged in Buxar jail, about 120km west of Patna, prepare it. Sources in the home (prisons) department said the jail has received demands for 17 Manila ropes from across the country. Tihar jail in Delhi and Ambala jail in Haryana have sought four ropes each while the Naini jail in Uttar Pradesh and Hardwar jail in Uttarakhand have sought six and three ropes respectively.

The requisition came after April 7 when President Pranab Mukherjee rejected the mercy petitions of 14 convicts awarded capital punishment.

Buxar jail superintendent Surendra Kumar Ambastha told The Telegraph: “We have expertise in preparing the hanging rope.” Four convicted prisoners serving life term had been assigned the task. The last time this jail manufactured the rope, it was for Afzal Guru — executed in Tihar central jail for the December 13, 2001, Parliament attack case.

A special kind of thread, J-34 cotton yarn (perhaps from Punjab), is used for the rope. A private agency will provide the thread. Experts approve it once they are convinced it can bear the tension from the fall of the person to be hanged.

The rope is prepared on a spinning machine. Twenty yarns are mixed and coated with wax to soften it. Spinning takes place when weather is favourable, moisture in the air is preferred.

Unlike in the past, the whole process is now completed in Buxar jail and a readymade noose handed over to the jail requiring it.

Two rivers surround the jail and a particular area has been earmarked for preparing the rope. The noose is tailor-made for the person to be hanged, the convict’s age, weight and height are provided to the jail authorities. Before the execution, a test of the rope is mandatory. This is done under the supervision of a team of senior prison officials. The consignment is supplied only after mandatory tests. It takes over a week to prepare the rope.

The convicts skilled at making the rope also train fellow inmates in this regard. They are paid as per jail manual for making the ropes.

Sources claim the ropes sought by Tihar jail have already been provided. A senior Tihar jail official visited Buxar jail in the last week of April and collected them, paying around Rs 1,700 for each of the 18-feet long ropes.