Death-row convict's parents threaten suicide

Kolkata, Jun 21 (IANS) :

The parents of a man to be hanged Friday for the rape and murder of a teenager have threatened to commit suicide if the death sentence was not revoked.

Dhananjoy Chatterjee is to be hanged in the early hours of Friday for raping and killing a 14-year-old schoolgirl on March 5, 1990.

His plea for clemency has been turned down by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and preparations are underway to carry out the death sentence in a Kolkata jail.

A Kolkata court had sentenced Chatterjee to death in 1994, but appeals in higher courts, clemency pleas and other legal procedures delayed his punishment. He has been in jail since the trial began.

Chatterjee's aging parents Monday threatened to commit suicide if their son's sentence was not remitted to life term.

"We have no will to live. If our son is hanged, we will all commit suicide," the convict's mother Purnima Chatterjee told a local Bengali television channel.

Members of Chatterjee's family sat in a demonstration in front of the Press Club in downtown Kolkata.

The convict's parents, his wife and brothers squatted on the road surrounded by posters and banners asking authorities to pardon Chatterjee.

The parents, overtaken by grief, at one time lay down on the road and one of their sons fanned them with a newspaper.

Earlier, Chatterjee's parents had said their son's hanging should be put off till they died.

They said that they were old and would not live long -- so why couldn't the authorities wait for some more time before hanging him.