Death-row convict falls sick

Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who is awaiting execution for raping and murdering a teenage girl, has fallen sick and is receiving treatment.

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According to sources at the Alipur central correctional home where he is lodged, Chatterjee fell sick after refusing to eat for two days.

He was taken to a hospital under heavy security after his blood pressure decreased and he complained of nausea.

The 39-year-old convict refused to have his food regularly after President A P J Abdul Kalam turned down his second appeal for mercy.

Now, the West Bengal government will decide on a date for his hanging.

Chatterjee seems to have come to the end of the road, but a faint hope remains as his family prepares to appeal to the Supreme Court one last time to commute his sentence to a life term because his execution has been delayed for almost 14 years.

Chatterjee was first handed the death sentence by a lower court in Kolkata in 1991, but his appeals in higher court and clemency pleas with the President kept him from the gallows.

Chatterjee, who worked as a security guard at the same building where his victim lived, was charged with raping and murdering 14-year-old Hetal Parekh in Kolkata in December 1989.

Jail sources said Chatterjee wasn't taking his medicines and was being administered saline.