One of India’s most high-profile ‘Naxal’ prisoners has given a first-hand account of how Afzal Guru walked to the gallows and met his death by hanging in Tihar jail in 2013.Kobad Ghandy, who was accused of being a politburo member of the CPI (Maoists) i.e. the Naxalites, which he denies, and spent 10 years in six different jails including seven in Delhi’s Tihar jail, says that at 8 am on February 9, 2013, the day Afzal Guru was hanged, the jail staff lined-up along the two-minute route as Guru walked from the high risk ward to the phansi kothi where the gallows had been prepared. He said Guru covered the distance with great courage and did not break down at the moment of hanging.Ghandy says Guru asked the jail officers to look after the jail staff who had been good to him. More importantly, Ghandy adds, the jail staff were in tears. He said this was told to him by the jail staff themselves.
