Dhananjay's brother approaches SC

Dhananjay Chatterjee's brother on Wednesday made a last minute prayer before the Supreme Court to stay his execution.

Dhananjay is scheduled to be hanged on August 14 for raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl in Kolkata in 1990.

Vikas Chatterjee's counsel Colin Gonsalges filed an application before a bench headed by Justice N Santosh Hegde, which directed the matter be listed on Thursday before an appropriate bench.

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The petitioner said the inordinate delay in the execution had had a big effect on Dhananjay and that punishment itself should be a consideration for commuting the death sentence into life imprisonment.

The applicant said his brother's conviction was based on circumstantial evidence.

Chatterjee has been lodged at West Bengal's Alipur jail for nearly 14 years since his arrest a few months after the rape and murder of Hetal Parekh at her residence in Bhowanipur area of Kolkata.

Chatterjee was scheduled to be hanged on June 25.

The hanging was, however, put off after his family moved a petition in the Supreme Court and also filed a mercy plea with President A P J Abdul Kalam.

The President rejected the plea on August 4 and six days later, the date of execution was fixed at a meeting at the office of Jail Minister Biswanath Choudhury.