The Chaudhary Charan Singh (CCS) district jail in Meerut is getting ready for the execution of the serial Nithari killer Surinder Singh Koli next Friday, September 12. Koli has been kept under CCTV surveillance since he arrived on Thursday evening. According to the jail superintendent S.H.M. Rizvi, Koli has been calm and behaving normally. He ate the food served to him but he did not sleep on Thursday night.
Koli, who was earlier lodged in the Dasna jail in Ghaziabad, was on Thursday shifted to the high-security barrack in Meerut jail. The decision to hang Koli in the Meerut district jail was taken due the absence of hanging facility in the Dasna jail.
“So far, he has not intimated the authorities about his last wish. He has been reading religious texts since morning,” the Jail Superintendent said.
The jail officials are also particularly careful in ensuring that he does not make any suicide attempt. Two armed guards have been placed outside his cell.
In Koli’s execution, when it comes, the Meerut jail would witness a hanging after nearly four decades. According to the jail superintendent, Mr. Rizvi the last hanging in the Meerut jail happened 39 years ago of one Karan Singh of Muzaffarnagar.
The CCS jail officials told The Hindu that preparations for the execution of the serial Nithari killer, are underway.
"Koli's hanging, whenever it comes, would be nearly after four decades, so we want to make sure that every thing goes fine during the execution," said a jail official on condition of anonymity.
For instance, the official said, the part of the jail where death sentence prisoners are executed, would see some construction because it is in a bad shape.
"One of the pillars in the cell where Koli would be executed, would be reconstructed. And generally also the cell would be cleaned," he added.
The Meerut jail saw its first execution in 1951 and since then it has seen 17 prisoners' hanging. According to Mr. Rizvi, a hangman named Pavan will be called to execute Koli's hanging.
It would be for the first time that Pavan would be executing some body. But his profession as an hangman is defined by the fact that his father and grandfather both practiced it.
Pavan said he will only feel satisfied once Koli is dead, adding that he inspected the ladder, rope and the plank yesterday in order to prepare for the hanging. The hangman also said that his grandfather Kalu had hanged Indira Gandhi's killers, Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh in 1989.
The preparations aside, Koli might get a judicial reprieve because of the recent Supreme Court verdict which entitles him with the right to file a fresh review petition. The SC in its September 2 judgment said that all the death row convicts, whose review petitions have been rejected in the chambers of judges, but their sentence has not been executed till date, may file fresh pleas for open court hearing where the defense counsel would get an opportunity to present arguments.
The Ghaziabad sessions court on Wednesday had issued a death warrant against Koli for murder of a 14-year-old girl Rimpa Halder.
Koli who used to work as domestic servant in Nithari locality of Noida in Uttar Pradesh, has been sentenced to death in connection with the killing of Halder and in four other cases.
Koli was awarded death sentence by a lower court, which was upheld by the Allahabad High Court and confirmed by the Supreme Court on February 15, 2011 for the murder of Rimpa Halder in 2005.
Published - September 06, 2014 04:39 am IST
