Under Indian law, death penalty is given only for extremely heinous crimes. If a person is sentenced to death, it is not that he is immediately hanged as soon as he is sentenced. Even for hanging, a long process has to be followed. Gangaram’s work comes into play at one place in this process. Let us now tell you who this Ganga Ram is and why he is hanged before every hanging.
Who is Ganga Ram?
Before hanging a criminal, many things are checked, so that no problem arises during the hanging. That means the rope with which to be hanged is checked thoroughly. After this the hanging place is checked properly. After this comes Gangaram’s turn. Actually, Gangaram is the name of an effigy which is used as dummy hanging by hanging it on a hanging rope. Understand it like this, if the weight of the person to be hanged is 100 kg, then this effigy is made of 150 kg and then it is hanged to see whether the rope will break or not. Why is the name of the effigy only Gangaram?
Senior journalist Girijashankar has seen the hanging process with his own eyes. He has written about this entire scene in his book ‘Aankhon Dekhi Phansi’. In fact, in 1978, when a convict named Baiju was being hanged in a jail in Raipur, he was present there for reporting. In his book, he writes that before the hanging, when an effigy was prepared for the dummy hanging, it was named Gangaram.
Further, journalist Girijashankar writes that when I asked the jail superintendent there about this matter. When asked, he told that in 1968, when he was in Central Jail Jabalpur for training, a dacoit Chhidda Singh was hanged there. Even during that time the effigy was called Gangaram. However, even the people there did not know the answer to the question why the name of the effigy used for hanging the dummy was Gangaram.
