India
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · The Indian legislative system also provides for different...
- News items in the archive
- 1,856
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
India is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 1,856 news items on India, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- AUGUST 28, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: HC ADMITS APPEAL OF 2003 BLASTS CONVICT FACING DEATH PENALTY
Justices Bilal Nazki and A R Joshi of the Bombay High Court in India allowed an appeal by death row inmate Ashrat Ansari.
- AUGUST 26, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: TWO MAOISTS SENTENCED TO DEATH
a local court awarded the death sentence to two Maoists in Chatra district, India.
- AUGUST 21, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: COURT ORDERS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TO TWO
a court sentenced Naresh Harijan and Ram Harijan to death for a murder in Bihar's Banka district in India
- AUGUST 19, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: HANGING OF MAN WHO RAPED, KILLED DAUGHTER STAYED
Justices DK Jain and 19/08 HL Dattu of the Indian Supreme Court stayed the execution of a man convicted of raping and killing his four-year-old daughter on June 28, 2007
- AUGUST 18, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: AWARDING DEATH PENALTY TO BE MADE TOUGHER: SC
the Supreme Court said judges, while awarding death penalty in mechanical consonance with the 1980 ‘Bachan Singh’ judgment, appear to have lost sight of vital ingredients – “the lesser alternative (life imprisonment) is unquestionably foreclosed” and “obj
- AUGUST 15, 2009Saudi ArabiaDEATH PENALTY
SAUDI ARABIA: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR BYNDOOR YOUTH
Abdul Majeed, 27, of Navunda, near Byndoor in India, was awarded capital punishment by a Saudi Arabian court for transporting narcotic drugs.
- AUGUST 12, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: ON DEATH ROW SINCE 1991, HE WAITS FOR HANGMAN
Piara Singh, 80, cannot walk or see and his dementia gets worse by the day. Piara, a murder convict sentenced to death in 1996, has been languishing in Amritsar jail since 1991, mostly in solitary confinement, with neither death nor mercy rescuing him fro
- AUGUST 6, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: MAN GIVEN DEATH PENALTY FOR KILLING MINOR NEPHEWS
a bench of the Delhi High Court in India comprising Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Indermeet Kaur upheld...
AUGUST 6, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: THREE SENTENCED TO DEATH
three people, including a woman, were sentenced to death for their involvement in two
- JULY 30, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: COURT AWARDS DEATH SENTENCE TO MAN FOR MURDERING NEIGHBOUR
a court in Allahabad, India, awarded the death sentence to Sanjay, a resident of Uttaraon police station area in the district’s trans- Ganga region, for hacking to death his neighbour Kullu on May 13, 2005.
- JULY 29, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: HOOCH: BILL ON DEATH PENALTY CLEARED
following the Ahmedabad hooch tragedy, the Gujarat Assembly passed a Bill proposing stringent punishment, up to death penalty, to deal with the illicit liquor trade.
- JULY 29, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: DEATH PENALTY ADDED TO K'TAKA TERROR LAW
the state legislature in Bangalore, India, approved a slew of amendments to the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA), allowing for the death sentence for terrorism.
- JULY 26, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: HC SETS DEADLINE FOR DISPOSING OF EXECUTION APPLICATIONS
a single bench of Punjab and Haryana High Court in India set December 24, 2009, as the deadline for Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to dispose of the execution applications pending for five years or more.
- JULY 24, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: EXECUTION OF DELHI GIRL MURDER CONVICT STAYED
the execution in India of the son of a Delhi Police sub inspector, who was sentenced to death for murdering his girl friend...
- JULY 22, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
PAKISTAN: SARABJIT SINGH FILES FRESH APPLICATION IN SUPREME COURT
a fresh application has been filed before the Pakistan Supreme Court seeking review of its decision to dismiss the Indian death row inmate Sarabjit Singh's petition challenging his death penalty.
- JULY 18, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
additional and sessions judge C.Taanti of the Tenughat court in Bokaro...
additional and sessions judge C.Taanti of the Tenughat court in Bokaro...
- JULY 18, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: FATHER GIVEN DEATH SENTENCE FOR RAPE AND MURDER
a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in India awarded the death sentence to a man for raping and murdering his four year old daughter.
- JULY 17, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: MAN AWARDED CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN SODOMY MURDER CASE
a local court in Chandigarh, India, awarded capital punishment to a man for sodomising and murdering a six-year-old boy.
- JULY 16, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: GUJARAT PROPOSES DEATH PENALTY FOR HOOCH DEALERS
the Gujarat State Government in India decided to frame a new law with provisions for the death sentence for hooch dealers.
JULY 6, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTYINDIA: EXECUTION BY HANGING TO CONTINUE
India's top court has refused to replace hanging with lethal injection as the country's
- JUNE 30, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: MAN AWARDED DEATH PENALTY FOR RAPE/MURDER
at a local court in Indore, India, Additional District Session Judge Justice S K Srivastav sentenced Shankarlal Jogi, 55, to death for the rape and murder of a minor girl.
- JUNE 24, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
PAKISTAN COURT REJECTS INDIAN'S DEATH SENTENCE APPEAL
Pakistan's Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Indian man Sarabjit Singh to have his 1991 death sentence for spying and terrorism in Mumbai overturned.
- JUNE 21, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
PAKISTAN: SC ADJOURNS SARABJIT'S CASE HEARING
Pakistan's Supreme Court adjourned the hearing of a review petition challenging the death sentence given to Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh for his alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in 1990 till June 23rd.
- JUNE 17, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: SC UPHOLDS DEATH FOR RAPE OF MENTALLY ILL GIRL
the Indian Supreme Court upheld the death sentence awarded by the Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench to a 55-year-old man for kidnapping, raping and brutally strangling a 10-year-old mentally retarded girl.
- JUNE 11, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
MAN GETS DEATH SENTENCE FOR MURDER OF WIFE, KID
a local court in Siddharthnagar, India, awarded the death sentence to Pateshwari Chaudhary for killing his wife and daughter.
- JUNE 9, 2009NepalDEATH PENALTY
QATAR: APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY FOR THREE ASIAN MEN IN MURDER CASE
for the second time, a Doha appeals court in Qatar upheld the death penalty of two Indians and a Nepali in a murder case.
- JUNE 5, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: DEATH SENTENCE FOR EUNUCH MURDER
a contract killer who shot a eunuch inside the Tis Hazari Court premises, six years ago, was awarded the death sentence by a sessions court in India.
- JUNE 5, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: DEATH PENALTY TO MAN FOR KILLING WIFE OVER DOWRY
a local court in Kushinagar, India, awarded the death penalty to a husband and life imprisonment to a father in law for murdering a woman for her dowry in the Kotwali area.
- JUNE 3, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: DEATH TO 8 SINCE JAN
as many as eight people were awarded capital punishment by different courts in Bihar...
- JUNE 2, 2009IndiaDEATH PENALTY
INDIA: SC CHIDES NHRC FOR EXCEEDING ITS POWERS IN DEATH SENTENCE CASE
the Indian Supreme Court set aside an order of the Assam Governor who, on the direction of the NHRC, commuted the death sentence of a man who massacred four members of family.