Manab Adhikar Suraksha Manch activists and a group of students from the Bishop's College held a vigil near the Alipore jail on Saturday morning, about an hour before to the execution of rapist-murderer Dhananjoy Chatterjee.

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Though the road leading to the jail was cordoned off, MASUM members holding candles and placards stood by the barricades and sang 'We shall overcome'.

'Death sentence is against the will of god. Tooth for a tooth, eye for an eye, there will be no eye and no tooth left
in the world,' read a Bishop's College placard.

MASUM spokesman Kirti Roy said: "This is not the way to deal with crime. The killers of Indira Gandhi were hanged, but it failed to stop Rajiv Gandhi from being assassinated.

"It is not as if Dhananjoy wants to die, but the court, the government and the police are putting him to death. Will hanging him stop rapes? Every day rapes are taking place, even three-year-olds are being raped. Will the hanging stop this?"

Asked what could be the solution, Roy said, "We don't know. But we are against people being put to death."