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
- SEPTEMBER 5, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Indian Supreme Court acquitted a member of the...
The Indian Supreme Court acquitted a member of the All Assam Tiger Force sentenced to death by a trial court for kidnapping and killing two boys
- SEPTEMBER 4, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
It was reported that as many as 71 convicts were on...
It was reported that as many as 71 convicts were on death row in different jails in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where no one had been hanged to in the past 15 years
- SEPTEMBER 1, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Indian People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)...
The Indian People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) filed a public interest litigation petition in the Supreme Court highlighting the plight of 55 prisoners sentenced to death and languishing in various jails in the country's Bihar district
- AUGUST 29, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The high court, Indore bench, India, converted the...
The high court, Indore bench, India, converted the death sentence awarded to Ganesh of Gauri Nagar into life imprisonment
- AUGUST 29, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Gagan Kanojia and Rajinder Kumar, two men convicted...
Gagan Kanojia and Rajinder Kumar, two men convicted of murdering eight-year-old Heena and her six-year-old brother Abhishek in June, 2000, were sentenced to death by Jalandhar District and Sessions Court, India
- AUGUST 29, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Five people, including a Noida police sub-inspector,...
Five people, including a Noida police sub-inspector, were sentenced to death by a court in Faridabad, India, for their involvement in a case in which four people were murdered in December 1999
- AUGUST 27, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A fast track court in India's Bharuch district town...
A fast track court in India's Bharuch district town of south Gujarat sentenced to death Devi Singh Vasava for hacking a man to death
- AUGUST 25, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Five persons were sentenced to death by a local court...
Five persons were sentenced to death by a local court in India, for murdering a man, his daughter and another person at a village near Meerut in 1999
- AUGUST 18, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The EU called on India to "refrain from carrying out...
The EU called on India to "refrain from carrying out more executions and thereby reinstall the de facto moratorium" that had existed since 1997 before the execution carried out on August 14
- AUGUST 14, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Dhananjay Chatterjee, 39, was hanged performing India's...
Dhananjay Chatterjee, 39, was hanged performing India's first execution in 9 years
- AUGUST 11, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Dhananjoy Chatterjee, an Indian man due to be hanged on August 14...
Dhananjoy Chatterjee, an Indian man due to be hanged on August 14...
- AUGUST 10, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
India's Cabinet voted to repeal a tough anti-terrorism...
India's Cabinet voted to repeal a tough anti-terrorism law that critics say violates human rights and is often misused by authorities to punish political opponents
- AUGUST 5, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The father of death-row convict Dhananjoy Chatterjee...
The father of death-row convict Dhananjoy Chatterjee criticised President A
- AUGUST 5, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Indonesia executed Indian national Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey...
Indonesia executed Indian national Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey arrested in 1994 for drug smuggling, carrying out its first execution in three years
- AUGUST 4, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Indian President Abdul Kalam rejected a mercy plea...
Indian President Abdul Kalam rejected a mercy plea for Dhananjoy Chatterjee, a man convicted of raping and killing a teenage girl, paving the way for India's first execution in 15 years
- JULY 31, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)...
The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) launched an exercise to mobilise public opinion against the death sentence of Dhananjay Chatterjee, a man convicted of raping and murdering a teenage girl in West Bengal
- JULY 27, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Dileswar Barik was sentenced to death by a Sessions...
Dileswar Barik was sentenced to death by a Sessions court in Sundergarh, India, for killing six people in 2003
- JULY 25, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
It was reported that an overwhelming number of judges...
It was reported that an overwhelming number of judges who responded to the Indian Law Commission on ways to execute death penalty, favoured lethal injection as an additional mode
- JULY 21, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Indian government announced it had no plans to...
The Indian government announced it had no plans to abolish the death sentence
- JULY 20, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Foreigners condemned to death in Saudi Arabia typically...
Foreigners condemned to death in Saudi Arabia typically were unaware of their sentences and had no advance notice of their date of execution, according to former prisoners in the Arab kingdom
- JULY 17, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Government of India's Ministry of Health & Family...
The Government of India's Ministry of Health & Family Welfare issued the following press release: 'The government proposes to amend the Drugs and Cosmetics Act on the basis of recommendations made by Mashalkar Committee?
- JULY 13, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Indian embassy asked Indonesian authorities to...
The Indian embassy asked Indonesian authorities to spare the life of Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey, an Indian national who was facing a firing squad for drug trafficking
- JULY 13, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The fourth additional district court of Indore, India,...
The fourth additional district court of Indore, India, sentenced to death a man named Ganesh, accused of killing his wife and four children on April 9, 2002
- JULY 9, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Bombay High Court confirmed the death sentence...
The Bombay High Court confirmed the death sentence awarded by a lower court to Shivaji Shankar Alhalt, a 42-year-old labourer from Junnar near Pune, for the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl
- JULY 8, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri rejected...
Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri rejected appeals for clemency made by seven drug traffickers who had been sentenced to death
- JULY 6, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
It was reported that the fear of capital punishment...
It was reported that the fear of capital punishment made Noor Mohammed, a rapist, admit his crime and also return the victim, whom he had kidnapped, to her family in West Bengal
- JULY 3, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Indian home ministry recommended rejection of the...
The Indian home ministry recommended rejection of the mercy petition filed by Dhananjay Chatterjee, sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 14 year old Kolkata schoolgirl
- JUNE 29, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Four people were sentenced to death in India for raping...
Four people were sentenced to death in India for raping and strangulating a six-year-old girl
- JUNE 28, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The place where convicted drug trafficker, Ayodhya...
The place where convicted drug trafficker, Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey, was due to be executed was still being kept a secret although police in Indonesia had prepared the team for carrying out the execution
- JUNE 28, 2004IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Invoking the Ashokan edict that the state cannot kill...
Invoking the Ashokan edict that the state cannot kill an individual with vengeance, the Indian Law Commission recommended that authorities do away with hanging because found to be degrading and implement instead lethal injection