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Kolkata hangman prepares for execution
In just over 24 hours from now, Dhananjoy Chatterjee will be hanged to death for the rape and murder of a 15 year old schoolgirl in Kolkata back in 1990.
Executing the death sentence will be a professional hangman, who's getting himself psychologically ready for the task.
For the last couple of days, Nata Malik has been going to Alipore Jail to practise at the gallows.
His tools are a rope, treated with ghee and bananas for smoothness, and a sandbag. Nata has never met Chatterjee and doesn't want to either till the very last moment.
"I don't want to meet the condemned man. His image may disturb me. Once they bring him to the gallows, the job will be over in a minute. That's how I want it to be," said Malik,
Nata, Chatterjee's crime of raping and murdering a 15 year old schoolgirl justifies the punishment. All the same, the hangman will send up a prayer for the condemned man before he pulls the lever.
"I will pray to God that he dies painlessly. That his soul rests in peace and that he is reborn into a good home. I will also pray for myself. I am only doing what God wills. He decides matters of life and death," said the executioner. Nata will get Rs 10,000 for his task.
INDIA:
Indian rights groups denounce death penalty as hanging approachesRights activists and intellectuals are campaigning to halt capital punishment in India ahead of this week's scheduled execution of a man convicted of raping and murdering a teenager.
The death penalty is rare in this country. Friday's scheduled execution of Dhananjay Chatterjee, 39, will be West Bengal state's 1st in 13 years. Two people were hanged in the eastern state in 1991. Chatterjee was arrested and charged with raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl in the state's capital, Calcutta, in 1990.
He'd been working as a security guard at the building where she lived, and was found guilty of raping and then smothering her.
He pleaded innocent after his 1994 conviction and challenged the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court, which rejected his appeal.
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam then turned down Chatterjee's clemency plea, clearing the way for Friday's hanging in a Calcutta prison.
Leading Bengali intellectuals are protesting the death sentence, and saying they hope the president will rethink his decision.
"Some of us had appealed to the president against capital punishment and had appealed for his clemency for the death row convict," said filmmaker Mrinal Sen.
"The fact remains that the crime was very serious and I've nothing but contempt for such a crime. However, punishment by death is no answer," he said.
"The man should be given the severest punishment, other than death," said director and former actress Aparna Sen.
"I'm against capital punishment because violence cannot be met with violence," she said Wednesday.
"My view is that capital punishment should be abolished because it's barbaric," said popular Bengali writer Sunil Ganguly. "The law should find out some other strong punishment for this kind of crime."
The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, a Calcutta human rights group, had also appealed to the president to commute Chatterjee's punishment.
"Death punishment is nothing but violence in return for violence. Capital punishment has been abolished in many countries around the world," said the group's leader, lawyer Sujato Bhadra.
No Indian government has spoken of dropping capital punishment, but proposals were made last year to abandon hanging for a supposedly more humane execution method, such as lethal injection. No decision has been made on that issue.