27 June 2004 :

In the first public demand for the execution of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl, politicians across the political divide and people from diverse backgrounds called for immediate implementation of the sentence on him as a deterrent to heinous crimes. Participating in an open debate on `Hang or Not to Hang,' organised by a Bengali daily, Mira Bhattacharjee, social worker and wife of the Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said, ``Dhananjoy had committed a heinous crime. He is a disease in society which has to be removed.'' Hangman Nata Mullick, who was to execute Dhananjoy, but could not perform the job due to a temporary Presidential reprieve, today expressed his hatred for the man who, he felt, should be thrown into a tiger's cage to die. "This man (Dhananjoy) should be thrown into a tiger's cage as the right kind of punishment," Mr. Mullick said. Saying that he would not relent in finishing culprits like Dhananjoy Chatterjee, the only hangman in the State observed, ``After my death, my son will do my job and we will not spare a man who has no love in his mind which itself is a crime''.