August 12, 2004
 

Now that a five member bench of the Supreme Court has rejected Dhananjoy Chatterjee's brother's clemency petition, it is confirmed that Dhananjoy will be hanged on August 14^th, allegedly his birthday. Dhananjoy finds unexpected support in the form of Peter Bleach, who unwittingly lets the cat out of the bag in the context of how he was granted clemency in the Purulia arms drop case when he says 'Dhananjoy is going to be hanged because he is a poor man without any influence. Do we really think he would be hanged if he was a wealthy, upper caste man, a politician, a filmstar or a gang boss with political connections.'

The debate on whether the death penalty must be abolished or not will go on till the cows come home. In fact, Kamal Haasan's recent movie Virumaandi made out a case against capital punishment while editor-turned director Lenin made Oorukku Nooru Paer, an award winning movie.

Dhananjoy is accused of raping and murdering a 14 year old girl in 1990. As long as the evidence against him is proved beyond doubt, he deserves to be hanged or electrocuted or whatever. For the simple reason that he has been such a sick bastard to rape and murder a 14 year old. Nothing more, nothing less. Pardon me for the profanities, but that is exactly how I feel.

Those against the death penalty will no doubt point to Gladys Staines forgiving Dara Singh and the others who murdered her husband in Orissa. If Hetal Parekh's parents are willing to forgive, by all means grant him clemency.

Labels: death penalty