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 29, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
An Indian man, Janjana Arana, was executed in Saudi...
An Indian man, Janjana Arana, was executed in Saudi Arabia for murdering a Saudi man with a hatchet after a quarrel
- SEPTEMBER 19, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia executed an [unidentified] Indian man...
Saudi Arabia executed an [unidentified] Indian man for smuggling heroin into the country
- SEPTEMBER 15, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Sago Gham Mrogan, an Indian man convicted of smuggling...
Sago Gham Mrogan, an Indian man convicted of smuggling heroin into Saudi Arabia was beheaded, the Interior Ministry said
- SEPTEMBER 5, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Three gangsters of Dubai-based organisation were given...
Three gangsters of Dubai-based organisation were given capital punishment for a murderous attack on former city mayor Milind Vaidya in March 1999
- SEPTEMBER 3, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A Ugandan Court of Appeal upheld the death sentence...
A Ugandan Court of Appeal upheld the death sentence passed by the High Court against two Indian brothers, Kooky Sharmar and Davinder Kumar, for killing Kooky's wife Renu Joshi in 1997
- AUGUST 29, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Pondicherry Chief Sessions Judge, handed down a...
The Pondicherry Chief Sessions Judge, handed down a death sentence to 27-year-old Kamal Shah in the sensational Parvathi Shah murder case
- AUGUST 18, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
An Indian, Abdel Mussa Sheikh Mussa was decapitated...
An Indian, Abdel Mussa Sheikh Mussa was decapitated by the sword in Riyadh, the Saudi Interior Ministry said
- AUGUST 18, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Five people, including two women, were condemned to...
Five people, including two women, were condemned to death for killing 12 people in Odra village in March 1994
- AUGUST 13, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Additional District and Session court in Sidharthnagar...
The Additional District and Session court in Sidharthnagar sentenced to death Ramji Tiwari for shooting dead four persons in Chaurihari village in the Sidharthnagar area in October, 1997
- AUGUST 1, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court in New Delhi upheld the death sentence...
The Supreme Court in New Delhi upheld the death sentence imposed on an [unidentified] Indian man
- JULY 22, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A number of Indian legal experts and social rights...
A number of Indian legal experts and social rights activists called for the abolition of the death penalty in the country, saying it had no deterring effect as perceived in some quarters
- JULY 5, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A division bench of the Allahabad High Court set aside...
A division bench of the Allahabad High Court set aside the death sentence on three prisoners for committing two murders in Etah on July 20, 1999
- JUNE 12, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Qatar said it had executed three Indians for murder,...
Qatar said it had executed three Indians for murder, the first time the Gulf Arab state has imposed the death penalty in over three decades
- JUNE 11, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia executed an Indian man convicted of smuggling...
Saudi Arabia executed an Indian man convicted of smuggling drugs into the kingdom
- JUNE 1, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Additional district session judge M H Shah meted out...
Additional district session judge M H Shah meted out the death sentence to Vashram Narsinh Rajpara for killing his wife and four daughters by setting them on fire while they were sleeping on May 22, 1999
- MAY 23, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia executed an Indian man convicted of killing...
Saudi Arabia executed an Indian man convicted of killing a Saudi man and his son
- MAY 12, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Mumbai city civil and sessions court sentenced...
The Mumbai city civil and sessions court sentenced Shekhar Kadam and Subhash Bind to death for murder
- MAY 12, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Saudi Arabia executed an Indian man convicted of smuggling...
Saudi Arabia executed an Indian man convicted of smuggling an unspecified quantity of heroin into the Kingdom, the Saudi Interior Ministry said
- MAY 7, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A Delhi court sentenced Raj Kumar to death for brutally...
A Delhi court sentenced Raj Kumar to death for brutally killing his sister-in-law and six-month-old nephew in 1994 on apprehending that his father was not going to not give him a share of the ancestral property
- MAY 5, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Daily Telegraph criticised the Indian Supreme Court...
The Daily Telegraph criticised the Indian Supreme Court in New Delhi for annulling the death sentences passed on "three child murderers because they did not kill children for any of the usual horrible reasons, but to please the gods
- MAY 3, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court set aside a lower court order sentencing...
The Supreme Court set aside a lower court order sentencing to death four people for sacrificing three children at Newasa in 1992
- APRIL 28, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Two Indian men found guilty of the death of two people...
Two Indian men found guilty of the death of two people were executed in Saudi Arabia
- APRIL 26, 2000IndiaDEATH 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 on April 26 (no
- APRIL 25, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The governor of India's southern state of Tamil Nadu...
The governor of India's southern state of Tamil Nadu commuted the death sentence imposed on Nalini, a main defendant in the 1991 killing of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, to life imprisonment
- APRIL 21, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A 37-year-old woman was sentenced to death by a court...
A 37-year-old woman was sentenced to death by a court in Combaitore for murdering three persons, including her husband and mother-in-law, in 1998
- APRIL 12, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The Dubai (UAE) Appeals Court upheld the sentence on...
The Dubai (UAE) Appeals Court upheld the sentence on the 28-year-old Indian, identified only as a man, for stabbing to death a former colleague in 1998
- APRIL 5, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Two men were sentenced to death for the murder of under-trial...
Two men were sentenced to death for the murder of under-trial prisoner Kabeer alias 'LTTE Kabeer'
- APRIL 3, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
The National Commission for Women (NCW) rejected the...
The National Commission for Women (NCW) rejected the death penalty for rape convicts but said it could be considered in case of child and gang rape
- MARCH 29, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
Six eminent Tamil writers appealed to the President...
Six eminent Tamil writers appealed to the President and Tamil Nadu Governor to grant clemency to death row convict [identified only as] Govindasamy who was still awaiting execution in a Coimbatore jail sixteen years after having committed a crime
- MARCH 28, 2000IndiaDEATH PENALTY
A division bench of the Kerala High court meted out...
A division bench of the Kerala High court meted out the death sentence to "Ripper Chacko", 54, for the gruesome murder of a five-member family, including three children, in the Idukki district in August 1988