Meerut jail's hangman Pavan Jallad was all set to hang the convicted Nithari killer Surinder Koli, when the Supreme Court stayed the hanging till the convict's review petition is heard on September 10.

Pavan had a trial run of the hanging in Meerut jail, checked out all the contraptions that go into the gory medieval job of hanging, oiled the pulleys and the creaky edges, not for once apprehensive about whether it will all be perfect. "I've made sure that the gallows is in perfect working condition. I've greased and oiled every part," says Pavan sitting in his house in Meerut.

Undisturbed by the morbid nature of his job, Pavan was fast asleep when the Supreme Court stayed Koli's execution. "I got to know of the stay at 8am on Monday," Pavan told dna. "No, I wasn't told that Koli was to be hanged on Monday morning. I went to the jail for a trial run."

SHM Rizvi, senior superintendent of Meerut Jail, told dna he too was sleeping when the SC stayed Koli's hanging late at night. He says he is waiting for the next court order, and that Koli's mother Kunti Devi is on her way to Meerut from Uttarakhand. Till then Koli will remain behind bars.

This would have been 52-year-old Pavan's first solo hanging. Like other hangmen in India, Pavan belongs to a family of hangmen. Earlier, he has assisted his father Mamu Jallad in carrying out hangings. His great-grandfather Ram Rakh hanged Bhagat Singh. That was a blot on the family. Mammu Jallad wanted to hang Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab to erase that blot. But Mammu died in May 2011.

"My grandfather Kallu Ram (Ram Rakh's son and Mammu's father) hanged Indira Gandhi's assassins Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh, and Ranga and Billa, the killers of Geeta and Sanjay Chopra," says Pavan, father of seven, five daughters and two sons.

The government pays him a retainer of Rs3000 per month. Pavan frets about being paid a pittance. "I am a government employee. I should get at least Rs15/20,000," says Pavan, who lead a hand-to-mouth existence.

After all legal hurdles are cleared, Pavan knows that he will be summoned once again to the Meerut jail to carry out the hanging. With his first solo hanging he too will find a place in the bloody and morbid history of his family.