24 June 2004 :

Indian authorities stayed the hanging of Dhananjoy Chatterjee in what would have been India's first execution in 15 years. The stay came as Indian President Abdul Kalam reviewed an appeal for clemency by a human rights group. The convict's elderly parents had threatened to commit suicide if the execution scheduled for June 25th had been carried out. "The hanging of Dhananjoy Chatterjee has been postponed," West Bengal state's Law Minister Nisith Adhikari told AFP. The state's top prosecutor Balai Roy said the execution would be stayed until the president decided on the petition for clemency.
Chatterjee, a former apartment guard and elevator operator, was convicted of raping and killing a 16-year-old tenant as she returned from school in 1990 in Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal. The sentence would have been carried out by 83-year-old Nata Mallick, who had said he was tying nooses at home for practice and would bring to the gallows his 20-year-old grandson who would succeed him as Calcutta's hangman.
The convict's father Bangshidhar Chatterjee, 76, and Purnima Chatterjee, 70, had threatened to commit suicide if their son was hanged and asked that the execution wait until they died.