Indian President Abdul Kalam has rejected a mercy plea for a man convicted of raping and killing a teenage girl, paving the way for India's first execution in 15 years, a government official said Wednesday.
"The decision was taken on Monday evening and communicated to the union home ministry," the official said.
The hanging of Dhananjoy Chatterjee was stayed last month when a human rights group made an appeal to Kalam for clemency.
The convict's parents had threatened to commit suicide if the execution first set for June 24 was carried out.
Chatterjee, an apartment guard and elevator operator in Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal state, was convicted of raping and killing a 16-year-old tenant when she returned from school in 1990.
It was not immediately clear when the execution would take place. The death sentence will be carried out by 83-year-old Nata Mallick, who told reporters he was tying nooses at home for practice and would bring to the gallows his 20-year-old grandson who would succeed him as Calcutta's hangman.
The convict's father Bangshidhar Chatterjee, 76, and mother Purnima Chatterjee, 70, had threatened to commit suicide if their son was hanged and asked that the execution wait until they die.
Capital punishment is increasingly out of favour in India, whose Supreme Court authorises executions only in the "rarest of rare cases". Executions are regularly delayed indefinitely or commuted by the president.
The last known executions were carried out in January 1989 with the hangings of Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh, the bodyguards convicted of assassinating prime minister Indira Gandhi.