Sex workers oppose Dhananjoy's execution

Hundreds of sex workers in Kolkata on Tuesday demonstrated against the death sentence of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, convicted for murder and rape of minor schoolgirl Hetal Parekh, saying that capital punishment was 'revengeful and medieval'.

Hundreds of sex workers in Kolkata on Tuesday demonstrated against the death sentence of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, convicted for murder and rape of minor schoolgirl Hetal Parekh, saying that capital punishment was 'revengeful and medieval'.

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Seeking a withdrawal of the execution order and its replacement with a life sentence for Chatterjee, about 500 sex workers under the banner of Durbar Mahila Samanvay Committee marched in a protest rally through the heart of the city from College Square to Esplanade in central Kolkata.

The sex workers rallied silently down the arterial Chittaranjan Avenue holding placards that condemned the 'barbaric' practice of capital punishment and pleaded for Chatterjee's life.

"One act of injustice can not be countered with another act of injustice. The very concept of establishing justice by way of taking a life is revengeful and medieval," DMSC president Rama Debnath said.

The rally also called for exclusion of the clause responsible for awarding death penalty from the Indian Penal Code.