Buddha favours execution of Dhananjay

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee on Friday favoured execution of Dhananjay Chatterjee, facing death sentence for rape and murder of 14 year-old old Hetal Parekh in 1990, saying the message should go to the perpetrators of this sort of crime, even as his party's state secretary has said the death by hanging should be abolished.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee on Friday favoured execution of Dhananjay Chatterjee, facing death sentence for rape and murder of 14 year-old old Hetal Parekh in 1990, saying the message should go to the perpetrators of this sort of crime, even as his party's state secretary has said the death by hanging should be abolished.

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"In this case I am in favour of death sentence. I mean death by hanging. Yes, the message should go", he told newsmen when asked whether he felt that Chatterjee's execution would be a lesson to the perpetrators of this sort of crime.

"In this case I am in favour of death sentence. In our country, there is no other convention than the death sentence. Other countries have provisions like electric chairs and firing squad", he said.

The Chief Minister's statement came a day after CPI(M) state party secretary Anil Biswas called for evolving a consensus on banning death sentence by hanging, a "medieval practice", through discussions among political parties and social organisations.