NEW DELHI, 13 August 2004 — India will carry out its first execution in 15 years tomorrow after the Supreme Court rejected Dhananjoy Chatterjee’s last-gasp appeal to escape the gallows for raping and murdering a schoolgirl in 1990.
Chatterjee, 42, will be executed in a Calcutta prison at 4:30 a.m. Saturday (2300 GMT Friday) — coincidentally his birthday, lawyers said after the court yesterday rejected his appeal.
Chatterjee’s parents, kept under police watch as they have threatened to commit suicide to protest the death sentence, have refused to collect his body.
When his father Bangshidhar was officially informed by the Bankura district administration (West Bengal) about the apex court ruling, his reaction was: “We will not see our son being hanged. We are also not interested in collecting his body.” A team of 20 lawyers drafted a petition appealing to the Supreme Court in New Delhi to stay the execution and order a review of the entire case after Chatterjee’s mercy appeal was last week rejected by President Abdul Kalam.
