Calcutta, July 4: Breaking the dignified silence his family had maintained so long, the brother of the girl raped and killed 14 years ago by Dhananjoy Chatterjee has at last written to President A.P.J. Kalam, demanding “capital punishment” for the killer of his sister, Hetal Parekh.

With the convict’s hanging stalled and anti-capital punishment lobbies mounting pressure against Dhananjoy’s execution, Hetal’s brother, Rajinder, alias Raja, said over the telephone from his apartment in Mumbai’s Santa Cruz: “I have sent a letter to the President telling him why we want the death sentence to be executed because it involves one who has shattered our family.” He added that the letter, written and faxed by him, is an appeal for justice.

This is the first appeal of its kind by the Parekhs after Dhananjoy’s hanging was stalled, following the President’s decision to consider the latest mercy petition that was filed hours before he was to be taken to the gallows at Alipore jail.

“It’s been a long wait… For 14 years, we have been waiting in search of justice,” the brother said. Rajinder took a deep breath and his emotion-charged words tumbled out: “Why shouldn’t he be hanged? If someone, who is supposed to guard the life and property of a place, ends up with a murderous act then what do we expect, tell me?”

After Hetal’s murder, the Parekhs had quietly sold their third-floor flat in Anand Apartments, on Puddapukur Road, where the schoolgirl was murdered, and disappeared from the scene. But the Parekhs have not forgotten the terrifyingly sadistic act.

“The fact remains that my sister was wronged… terribly wronged,” the brother said, and then suddenly hung up, when asked his full name.

Jamuna Mahal, in Santa Cruz (East), remained incommunicable thereafter. The Parekhs’ possibly preferred to keep the phone off the hook.

But could Dhanonjoy Chatterjee’s sentence be commuted to life imprisonment? Neither would investigating officer Sachi Majumder nor the police top brass comment in public.

In private, though, police officers become more vocal. “The forensic report had indicated that Hetal’s was a case of rape after murder,” claimed a senior officer, adding that possibly the convict was not sure of the girl’s death and wanted to take it out on the girl for having spurned his passes.

Dhananjoy was the security guard-cum-liftman of the apartment where the Parekhs lived.