Is there anyone who will hang Kasab for Rs150?

Here is a situation vacant for which a candidate has to meet just two criteria. He has to be a male. And his height should be no less than five feet four inches.

What is more, he need not have any previous experience. Still, there is no taker for the job. For it is the job of a hangman. And the pay is poor — a paltry Rs150 per hanging.

Explaining why there has been no taker for the job ever since the last hangman in the state, R Jadhav, retired in 1997, a senior official of the prison department said, “The job is not for the faint-hearted. It requires an unusual strength of mind which no classroom education can impart.”

With special judge ML Tahaliyani sentencing Kasab to death on Thursday, the state will have to look for a hangman.

There are two prisons in the state that have gallows — the Yerawada jail in Pune and the Nagpur central jail.

Currently, there are 11 convicts in Yerawada awaiting death penalty. Most of them were sentenced to death by a Tada court for their involvement in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.