It has been more than two decades since any convict was executed in Assam, and with no qualified executioners remaining, officials in this Northeastern state are scouring the rest of the country for a candidate.

  In all of India, where the death penalty is handed down in only the ‘rarest of rare’ cases, there have been only two hangings in the past 15 years.

Das was convicted for publicly decapitating a victim. On April 24th 1996, he snuck up behind Hara Kunta a rival official in the local transporters’ union in a busy market in Assam’s capital, Gauhati.

Das decapitated Kunta and then carried the bloody head by the hair to a nearby police station screaming, “I have killed him.”

Courts ruled that the public nature of the crime, combined with Das’s horrifying walk through the streets, warranted the death penalty.

“We have started the process of putting up the gallows,” said Brojen Das, the jailer of the prison at Jorhat, 300km east of Gauhati but it is unclear when an executioner will be found to use it.

Nata Mullick, India’s most famous hangman, came out of retirement at 84 to carry out that execution, earning $435 and a job for his grandson at the jail.

A third-generation hangman, Mullick executed 25 of the 55 people who died on the gallows since independence in 1947. Meanwhile, Das’ relatives continue to appeal for mercy.