The European Union, which champions a worldwide campaign against capital punishment, has asked India to abolish it.
Capital punishment is rare in India, but the case of a man awaiting death by hanging for raping and murdering a teenage girl drew the EU's attention.
The EU has urged Indian authorities not to go ahead with the hanging of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was to be put to death on June 25, but won a brief reprieve after President A P J Abdul Kalam agreed to consider a second mercy petition from his family.
On June 23, the EU presidency submitted a demarche to India in New Delhi noting down its views against capital punishment. Ireland holds the EU presidency.
According to diplomatic sources, the Irish envoy to New Delhi handed over the demarche to Indian authorities. It asked the Indian President to consider abolishing capital punishment that had been banned in the EU community.
The EU intervention appears to have influenced President Kalam's decision to hear a second clemency petition from Chatterjee's family.
Besides, several leading Bengali intellectuals and a city-based rights outfit -- campaigning against capital punishment -- had also appealed for clemency for Chatterjee.
Traditionally, the President refers clemency pleas to the Union government and goes by its recommendation.
The Union home ministry Friday said it would recommend Chatterjee's execution because his crime deserved punishment with death.
Chatterjee raped and murdered 14-year-old student Hetal Parekh on March 5, 1990 at her home in a southern Kolkata neighbourhood. He used to work as a security guard in the building in which the victim lived.
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