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 17, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Jail authorities in the eastern Indian state of Orissa...
Jail authorities in the eastern Indian state of Orissa suspended their search for a hangman after the death sentence of Dayanidhi Bishnoi, 35, was commuted to life imprisonment
- AUGUST 13, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A government committee has recommended the death penalty...
A government committee has recommended the death penalty for those who sell or manufacture fake pharmaceutical drugs, Indian Health Minister Sushma Swaraj said
- AUGUST 10, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Indian Law Commission said that public opinion...
The Indian Law Commission said that public opinion on the mode of executing prisoners on death row favoured an amendment to the law, which stipulated hanging as the method of execution
- AUGUST 7, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
India's Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of...
India's Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of Ram Pal, a man convicted of murdering 21 people including women and children, to life imprisonment as the murders he committed 17 years ago appeared to have been an act of extreme provocation
- AUGUST 5, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Indian Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence...
The Indian Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence awarded to four men convicted of killing 15 people at a wedding party in a village in Punjab's Amritsar district in 1991 to avenge their humiliation at the hands of the bridegroom's father
- JULY 10, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
It was reported that Indian Health Minister Sushma...
It was reported that Indian Health Minister Sushma Swaraj said he wanted the death penalty for manufacturers of "spurious drugs"
- JULY 7, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
"The prison department in Jharkhand has a strange problem:...
"The prison department in Jharkhand has a strange problem: The state's jail has 12 men who have been sentenced to death, but no hangman to execute these sentences," the Hindustan Times reported
- JULY 4, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
It was reported that the Chief Justice of the Calcutta...
It was reported that the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court sought views from colleagues on ways to execute people in a less painful manner
- JULY 3, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A division bench of the Karnataka High Court changed...
A division bench of the Karnataka High Court changed the life sentence of Sardar Khan to a death sentence for murdering his wife in 1997
- JUNE 27, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Additional district judge L S Pavshe sentenced to death...
Additional district judge L S Pavshe sentenced to death Shivaji Alhat, 45, a former schoolteacher, for raping and murdering 10-year-old Hemalata Nanavre of Junnar, in Pune district, on January 14, 2002
- JUNE 23, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A district court in India sentenced to death Surendrapal...
A district court in India sentenced to death Surendrapal Shivpal, who was arrested on charges of raping and murdering a seven-year-old girl in September 2002
- JUNE 16, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Sixth additional district and sessions judge, Ashoke...
Sixth additional district and sessions judge, Ashoke Kumar Chand sentenced to death Hani Mian, Suresh Sao and Hiraman Sao, three Maoist Communist Centre activists responsible for the 2001 "Beltu massacre" which killed 14 people
- JUNE 6, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Gaya additional district and sessions court in Bihar,...
Gaya additional district and sessions court in Bihar, India, sentenced eight people to death and six to life imprisonment for the mass killing of lower caste Hindus in 1988
- MAY 23, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Raghuwar Dayal was sentenced to death for raping and...
Raghuwar Dayal was sentenced to death for raping and strangling to death a woman named Kalawati
- MAY 22, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Traffic police constable Chandrajeet Yadav was sentenced...
Traffic police constable Chandrajeet Yadav was sentenced to death by Sessions judge JN Paliwal for killing five members of his family, including wife Vidya Devi and four daughters
- APRIL 30, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A court sentenced a priest, Shushil Murmu, to death...
A court sentenced a priest, Shushil Murmu, to death for sacrificing a nine-year-old child to appease a deity in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand
- APRIL 28, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Karan Singh, Kunwar Bahadur Singh and their accomplice,...
Karan Singh, Kunwar Bahadur Singh and their accomplice, 16 year old Phool Singh were sentenced to death in India after being convicted of killing five members of the same family with an axe on April 24, 1999
- APRIL 27, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
In its consultation paper on the execution of the death...
In its consultation paper on the execution of the death penalty for prisoners, the Law Commission of India said that causing death by lethal injection was simple to execute
- APRIL 24, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
India abstained from the resolution on the death penalty...
India abstained from the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva
- MARCH 25, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Sikh body Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee...
The Sikh body Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) called upon the Federal government to abolish the death penalty saying it would raise India's image in the eyes of the world
- MARCH 25, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Chris Pond, MP for Gravesham, threw his support behind...
Chris Pond, MP for Gravesham, threw his support behind the Sikh community by writing to Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam urging him to take Davinder Pal Singh Bhuller off death row
- MARCH 11, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Indian national Arun Abraham, sentenced to death by...
Indian national Arun Abraham, sentenced to death by Qatar's Sharia court for killing his Indian colleague, was executed by firing squad in Doha's central prison
- MARCH 4, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International said that if Portugal extradited...
Amnesty International said that if Portugal extradited Indian gangster Abu Salem, who is accused of masterminding bombings in Bombay that killed nearly 300 people, it would violate the Portuguese constitution
- FEBRUARY 26, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Eight Indian Muslims, including four who had been sentenced...
Eight Indian Muslims, including four who had been sentenced to death, were acquitted over the 1997 killing of a policeman that had led to deadly communal riots in southern India
- FEBRUARY 24, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Dharam Deva Yadav, an Indian national, was sentenced...
Dharam Deva Yadav, an Indian national, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of murdering New Zealand backpacker Diana Routley, 24, in August, 1997
- FEBRUARY 24, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
New Zealand Justice Minister Phil Goff said that the...
New Zealand Justice Minister Phil Goff said that the Government does not support the death penalty but that it is for India's justice system to decide what sentence to pass on Diana Routley's killer
- FEBRUARY 22, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Chandrasekar, 46, was sentenced to death by a fast...
Chandrasekar, 46, was sentenced to death by a fast track court after being convicted of beheaded his son, Shanmugam, with a hacksaw on September 3, 2001, following a quarrel over the latter's inability to find a job
- FEBRUARY 15, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A man reportedly named as 'Munesh' was sentenced to...
A man reportedly named as 'Munesh' was sentenced to death by a Special Sessions Court in Bulandsahar, India, for the rape and murder of a minor girl
- FEBRUARY 13, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Indian government took diplomatic steps in a last...
The Indian government took diplomatic steps in a last ditch effort to save Indian national Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey from a death sentence for importing heroin into Indonesia
- FEBRUARY 11, 2003IndiaDEATH PENALTY
China has executed 81 Tibetan political prisoners in...
China has executed 81 Tibetan political prisoners in the past 16 years and another 208 Tibetans are in detention awaiting the same fate, a human rights group said