With Mallick’s death, the state is left with no hangman and around 100 convicts waiting at the gallows.

“Other than Nata Mallick, we do not have a hangman. We have to look for a new hangman since we have around 100 convicts sentenced to death,” said Jail Minister Biswanath Choudhury.

A senior jail official said as a young boy, Nata Mallick was one of the team members of the hangman when freedom fighter Surya Sen was hanged by the British government.

Mallick, according to the official, felt repentant throughout his life for this.

According to Nata’s son Mahadeb, his father was never given money for treatment that he was promised by the state government.

After he could work no more due to age, Mallick ran his family with the revenue he earned from the documentary A

Day From A Hangman’s Life made by filmmaker Josy Joseph that captured Nata’s dilemma while overseeing the execution of Dhananjoy Chatterjee a few years ago, a case which hit the headlines then.

Chatterjee was sentenced to death on charges of raping and murdering a schoolgirl and his execution in 2005 had triggered a national debate on capital punishment.

The 83-minute documentary was released commercially on June 18, 2005 in the state-run Nandan II theatre but was withdrawn three days later, allegedly at the behest of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.