Dhananjoy Chatterjee wants religious songs to be played when he is led to the gallows before dawn on Saturday for raping and murdering a schoolgirl in this West Bengal capital 14 years ago.
"That's his last wish," said an official of the Alipore jail, where Chatterjee will hang to death.
The official said Chatterjee had conveyed his wish to Ranjit Mondal, superintendent of the British-built jail, a huge red-brick building in the middle of a busy south Kolkata neighbourhood.
"He has told us to play religious songs so that they soothe him," the official said.
Chatterjee has reportedly expressed his desire to donate his eyes and kidneys, but it's not known if the officials are preparing to collect these immediately after his death.
The convict, who will be 41 on Saturday, heard the news of the Supreme Court rejecting his prayer for life on Thursday on a radio sitting inside the condemned cell No 3.
He fell silent after hearing the news and did not indulge in his regular chats with the jail guards and the warden.
{{/usCountry}}He fell silent after hearing the news and did not indulge in his regular chats with the jail guards and the warden.
{{/usCountry}}The convict, who has all along pleaded innocent, spent on Thursday having little food or water and was seen intermittently breaking down.
Chatterjee had fasted the day before and prayed before a picture of the Hindu goddess Kali in the hope that he would win a reprieve.
He even chanted from religious scriptures and offered the goddess flowers and sweets provided by jail authorities at his request inside his cell.