“Sir, ami banchte chai. Amake doya korey phasikathey jholaben na (Sir, I want to live. Please don’t send me to the gallows),” Dhananjoy Chatterjee pleaded with state minister for jails and social welfare Biswanath Chowdhury on Sunday morning. The minister paid a surprise visit to the condemned rapist-murderer’s cell at Alipore jail.

Accompanied by deputy inspector-general (DIG) of prisons Ramapada Bhattacharya, the minister reached Dhananjoy’s cell around 10.35 am, when he was offering prayers to a Kali printed on a calendar.

Caught unawares by the minister’s visit, Dhananjoy tried to touch his feet but was prevented from doing so by jail staff. Then, with folded hands, he pleaded with Chowdhury that he should not be hanged and that instead, his death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.

Chowdhury also visited the adjoining Presidency jail and checked the cell in which Aftab Ansari, Dubai-based don, is languishing in connection with the attack on the American Center.

“I found him hale and hearty,” Chowdhury said, hours after his return from the jail.

Aware that President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is likely to turn down his mercy plea, Dhananjoy appeared determined to escape the gallows.

“We are keeping a close watch on him round-the clock,” said DIG (prisons) Bhattacharya.

The jail authorities recently wrote to the government asking what they should do in the wake of the Supreme Court’s order staying the execution.

The government had also arranged for a permanent job for hangman Nata Mullick’s grandson as sweeper-cum-hangman for Mullick to agree to execute Dhananjoy.

“But everything will come to a standstill if the hanging is stalled,” said a senior jail official. He wondered how they could accommodate the grandson if the hanging gets stalled. “Prisons are overstaffed and the post of a permanent hangman for the jail will be redundant if death sentences are commuted to life sentences,” he added.