Nirbhaya rape and murder convicts were likely to be executed by a hangman from Uttar Pradesh.
Amid reports that the four Nirbhaya convicts could be executed soon, the Tihar jail administration has sounded UP prison officials for two hangmen.
Additional Director General (jails) Anand Kumar said here on Thursday that the state government has received a letter from Tihar jail administration to provide two hangmen.
Presently there were two certified hangmen in the state prisons. One was at Meerut jail while the other was at Lucknow jail.
The letter did not say who was to be executed and when was it planned, sources said.
Sources said that Pawan 'jallad' (hangman), one of the certified hangmen, was being sent to Tihar. ''The other hangman will also be sent if required,'' said a jail official here.
Fifty five year old Pawan, a resident of Meerut town, about 450 kilometres from here, belonged a family of hangmen for four generations.
One of the convicts, Akshoy Kumar Singh, has filed a review petition in the supreme court. It was likely to be heard on Tuesday.
Earlier the centre as well as the Delhi government rejected the mercy petitions of all the four accused.
Nirbhaya, a paramedic student, was brutally raped and tortured by five people, including a juvenile, in a moving bus in December 2012. She died at the hospital 13 days later. The incident had triggered a nationwide outrage.