The Calcutta High Court today dismissed a public interest litigation seeking a stay on the execution of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, convicted of the rape and murder of 14-year-old Hetal Parekh in 1990.

The petition, filed by advocate Sridhar Bagari, was dismissed by a Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice A N Ray and Justice A K Mitra.

With the dismissal of the PIL, all avenues seem closed for Dhananjoy who has been sentenced to death by hanging. His sentence is scheduled to be executed at 4.30 am tomorrow morning at Alipur Central Jail.

In his 17-page petition, Bagri argued that the death penalty should be abolished specially for economically, educationally and politically backward persons as they cannot afford to effectively fight the might of the state.

The petitioner sought an interim order restraining the state from carrying out the death penalty against anybody, including Dhananjoy Chatterjee, till his petition was disposed off.

Yesterday, a five member Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court rejected the petition filed by Dhananjoy's brother, Bikash, requesting a scrutiny of the President's order rejecting Dhanonjoy's mercy plea and seeking a stay on the execution of the death sentence.

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