He was eventually caught and sent to jail. A year later, the murder and rape of Hetal Parekh became a rarest of  rare cases and Dhananjoy was given a death sentence in 1991 by Alipore sessions court.

Dhananjoy appealed for mercy in Calcutta High Court, the Supreme Court, from the governor and from the President. All pleas were rejected one after the other. The appeal and rejection procedure went on for 4 years.







Finally, a review petition was filed in Calcutta High Court in 1994 by his lawyers and the execution was stayed.   Dhananjoy was biding his time inside jail, and the case was soon forgotten by the media.

In 2003, while going through some files, the case attracted attention of the justice department and it was only then that the high court was asked to take the proceeding forward.






After the case was reviewed, his mercy petition was once again rejected one after the other, in High Court and then in Supreme Court. At last, when his mercy plea was rejected by the Governor, Dhananjoy started growing weak and became sure that his death was near.

A few days later, the Home Ministry ordered his hanging following the rejection of his mercy plea from the then President APJ Abdul Kalam.