WTF! DEATH PENALTIES PUT ON HOLD WHILE INDIA SEARCHES FOR A PROFESSIONAL HANGMAN!

It may not be the same as getting a pardon, but for one inmate, it'll do.

A convicted murderer in India who has received a rare death sentence has had his execution date repeatedly postponed because officials can't find a hangman.

There have been only two executions in India in the past 15 years - in a county of more than 1 billion people.

But the last trained hangman died in 2009 at age 89. He had performed 25 of the country's 55 hangings since independence in 1947.

That leaves the fate of Mahendra Nath Das - who was convicted of a grisly decapitation murder of a union official in 1996 - hanging in the balance.

Das was sentenced to death after walking through a busy public market carrying his victim's head by the hair to a local police station.

His pleas for clemency have been repeatedly rejected - most recently by India's president.

Officials have scoured the country for a qualified hangman but so far have had no luck.

The last execution was conducted in 2004, when a security guard was hanged for the rape and murder of a teenage girl.

Officials had convinced the country's last hangman, Nata Mullick, to come out of retirement at age 84 to perform the task.

Mullick was a third-generation hangman and would practice with sandbags to perfect rendering a swift and painless death.

"It's an art: Your skills need to be honed," he said in 2007.

If a hangman cannot be found, the law allows a convict to volunteer to do the job, but so far no one has come forward.

While officials continue their hunt, they are preparing to mete out justice quickly.

"We have started the process of putting up the gallows," said jailer Brojen Das.

YOU MEAN TO TELL ME INDIA IS ONE OF THE MOST POPULATED COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD & THEY CANT FIND A HANGMAN?

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