08 June 2011 :

The Gauhati High Court in India stayed the hanging of death row convict Mahendra Nath Das till June 17, after his mother Kusumbala filed a writ petition to keep her son’s execution in abeyance for at least 14 days. The family will file a writ petition in the Supreme Court, seeking commuting of his death sentence to life term.
Mahendra Nath Das was sentenced to death in 1997 for murdering Harakanta Das in Fancybazar on April 24, 1996. The death sentence was confirmed by the High Court in February 1998, while the Supreme Court rejected the appeal in 1999. Das is now kept confined in an isolated cell meant for condemned prisoners.
Authorities of Central Jail, Jorhat have already initiated arrangement for installing the gallows for execution of the death sentence, while prison authorities in the State are on the lookout for a hangman, as President Pratibha Patil on May 25 rejected the clemency plea.