Mahendra Nath Das

Jorhat, May 2: He was shifted to the central jail here to be executed, but a day after the Supreme Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment, Mahendra Nath Das wants to stay on in this “lucky place” where he got a fresh lease of life.

“Das has requested me to ask the government to let him serve the life sentence in this prison,” Central Jail Jorhat jailor Sanjib Chetia told The Telegraph today.

Chetia said he met Das in his isolated cell (number 2) — one among the six meant for death row convicts — this afternoon, the second time since he broke the news to him last evening.

He said Das told him he considered this prison lucky, as the plea made from this jail had given him a new lease of life. “I request you to write to the government not to shift me to Guwahati Central Jail,” the jailor said, quoting Das.

He said Das also liked the prison staff for their kind and “good treatment”. In the past year he had resorted to hunger strikes several times, leading to hospitalisation here and in Guwahati and Dibrugarh.

The jailor said Das had burst into tears after he was told about the Supreme Court verdict yesterday. “He, who always carries the holy Bhagawad Gita, said god had listened to his prayers,” Chetia said.

Das was shifted to the Central Jail Jorhat on May 27, 2011, to be hanged after President Pratibha Devisingh Patil rejected his mercy petition.

In September last year, Das had stopped taking food after his mercy petition was rejected and had to be shifted to GMCH. He told reporters that he was fasting indefinitely demanding freedom.

The court order came in response to a clemency petition by Das, who wanted the capital punishment to be commuted to life on the grounds that it had taken more than 11 years for the President to respond to his mercy plea.

Chetia said Das had also urged him make the copy of the judgment available to him at the earliest. He said once the apex court’s judgment was received, Das would be given a copy and shifted to a prison ward from the cell.

Mahendra Das’s ancestral home at Bohori in Barpeta district. Picture by UB Photos

The jailor said whether Das would have to work or not would depend on the judgment details — whether the life sentence included rigorous or simple imprisonment. He said the food provided to Das — a vegetarian — would be unchanged.

Central Jail Jorhat, the only prison in Assam with facilities to execute prisoners at the gallows, witnessed two hangings in quick succession in 1989 and 1990.

These were the last in the state.

On November 20, 1989, Henry W. Robert of ONGC Colony, Sivasagar, was hanged in the jail after being convicted of kidnapping and murdering a young boy in Tinsukia.

On July 27, 1990, Kanpai Buragohain of Kuwaphala village in Dhemaji district was sent to the gallows after being convicted of multiple murders.

The yearlong centenary celebrations of the prison concluded last month.