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
- 1,863
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 1,863 news items on India, from 1999 to today.
In India the death penalty applies to murder, terrorism and certain serious sexual offences, and the method is hanging. Case law restricts it to the cases it calls the rarest of the rare: many sentences are handed down, few executions are actually carried out, and a significant share of sentences is overturned or commuted on appeal.
The archive follows sentences, commutations, executions and legislative debates.
Latest news
- SEPTEMBER 19, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
India's Representative in Malaya [Malaysia], Mr
India's Representative in Malaya [Malaysia], Mr
- SEPTEMBER 14, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The banned extremist outfit Maoist Communist Centre...
The banned extremist outfit Maoist Communist Centre called upon intelligentsia, students and landless labourers to oppose the death sentences given to its members and demanded their unconditional release
- SEPTEMBER 12, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The government approved the amendments to the Explosive...
The government approved the amendments to the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 and the Explosive Substances (Amendment) Bill, 1999 to enable the central government to include any new special category explosive substance and alter the minimum punishment to 1
- AUGUST 25, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A Delhi court sentenced to death Devender Pal Singh,...
A Delhi court sentenced to death Devender Pal Singh, a Sikh militant, for exploding a car bomb near the Indian Youth Congress office in 1993, killing nine persons and injuring 29, including the then president of the organisation, Mr
- AUGUST 24, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The official Saudi Press Agency reported that Sayed...
The official Saudi Press Agency reported that Sayed bin Mahboub Sayed Amir, an Indian man, was executed for smuggling heroin into the country
- AUGUST 19, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Saudi Press Agency reported that Kanujia Din Dayal,...
The Saudi Press Agency reported that Kanujia Din Dayal, an Indian man, was beheaded for murdering a Saudi national by bashing his head with a rock during an argument
- JUNE 28, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A sessions court sentenced to death two sisters who...
A sessions court sentenced to death two sisters who abducted infants from various places in Maharashtra in the 1990s, forced them to commit thefts and subsequently killed them mercilessly
- JUNE 8, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A Gaya court convicted nine of the 13 accused in the...
A Gaya court convicted nine of the 13 accused in the Bara massacre case giving the death sentence to four, life imprisonment to as many and 10-year's rigorous imprisonment to one
- JUNE 5, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Five people were given the death sentence by the first...
Five people were given the death sentence by the first additional judge for killing five members of a family in Madhepura district in 1997
- APRIL 30, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee said it would...
The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee said it would file a writ petition in the AP High Court seeking a direction to the state government that the guilty in the infants' sale racket be meted out strict punishment
- APRIL 25, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Speaking at the UN Commission on Human Rights during...
Speaking at the UN Commission on Human Rights during the vote on the resolution on the death penalty, a representative of India said that the international community had thus far not reached a consensus on the issue of capital punishment
- MARCH 19, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The House of Lords refused leave for the Indian government...
The House of Lords refused leave for the Indian government to appeal against a High Court refusal to extradite Nadeem Akhtar Saifi, a top Indian movie music director, who could face execution if returned to his homeland and ultimately convicted
- FEBRUARY 8, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Mahabub Subhani was given a death sentence by the Guntur...
Mahabub Subhani was given a death sentence by the Guntur district court for the murder of seventeen year-old-student Prasanna Lakshmi in her classroom on October 29, 1999
- FEBRUARY 1, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia executed in Al-Qatif Governorate two Indian...
Saudi Arabia executed in Al-Qatif Governorate two Indian men for stabbing to death a co-worker
- JANUARY 8, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia executed an Indian man for smuggling heroin
Saudi Arabia executed an Indian man for smuggling heroin
- JANUARY 2, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A striking book was published in India: Hangman's Journal...
A striking book was published in India: Hangman's Journal by Shashi Warrier, a novel that draws upon the life of Janardhanan Pillai, the hangman of the Maharaja of Travancore in the early 1940s and, over three decades, the performer of 117 executions
- JANUARY 1, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Indian legislative system also provides for different...
The Indian legislative system also provides for different levels of appeal, and death sentences are frequently commuted to life imprisonment upon appeal
- JANUARY 1, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
While Indian law allows death penalty for males above...
While Indian law allows death penalty for males above 16, Article 6 (5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which India ratified in 1979, and Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by India in 1992, make
- JANUARY 1, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty is provided for by the Penal Code...
The death penalty is provided for by the Penal Code and by Art
- JANUARY 1, 2001IndiaDEATH PENALTY
On February 12, 1999, the Maharashtra Control of Organized...
On February 12, 1999, the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Ordinance, 1999, was signed by President K
- DECEMBER 23, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Talmiz Ahmad said...
Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Talmiz Ahmad said that India and Saudi Arabia would sign an agreement for co-operation in combating drug trafficking during Indian Foreign Minister
- DECEMBER 21, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Jharkhand High Court has upheld the death sentence...
The Jharkhand High Court has upheld the death sentence of Surendra Singh Rautela alias Bengali
- DECEMBER 21, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A total of 52 Indians were awarded the death penalty...
A total of 52 Indians were awarded the death penalty in different countries during the last three years, Indian Junior Minister for External Affairs Ajit Kumar Panja informed Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Indian Parliament)
- DECEMBER 18, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Declining a reference made by the District and Sessions...
Declining a reference made by the District and Sessions Judge, Hisar, a division bench comprising Justice HS Bedi and AS Garg commuted the death sentence of Kuldip Singh, a resident of Gorakhpur village to life imprisonment
- NOVEMBER 19, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
An Indian national was executed in Dammam in the Eastern...
An Indian national was executed in Dammam in the Eastern Region (Saudi Arabia)
- OCTOBER 26, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia executed an [unidentified] Indian man...
Saudi Arabia executed an [unidentified] Indian man convicted of killing a Saudi man over a financial dispute, state television reported
- OCTOBER 21, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Delhi High Court upheld a death sentence given...
The Delhi High Court upheld a death sentence given to Shakila and Babu Lal for sacrificing one-and-half-year-old girl in a witchcraft fertility ritual
- OCTOBER 18, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
In a report on rights violations by soldiers, the Army...
In a report on rights violations by soldiers, the Army said it had investigated 1,426 complaints and punished 124 soldiers posted in Kashmir and the Northeast over the past 11 years
- OCTOBER 18, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Describing a cold-blooded murder as the "rarest of...
Describing a cold-blooded murder as the "rarest of rare cases", a city court sentenced Ashok Kumar Pandey to death for killing his 22-year-old pregnant wife and 19-month-old daughter in New Delhi in September 1996
- OCTOBER 4, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani said that there was...
Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani said that there was no ruling that the death sentence of a prisoner would automatically be commuted to life imprisonment if the state failed to execute the sentence within a year