in an effort to secure the strategically important...

in an effort to secure the strategically important oil pipelines from acts of terrorism like sabotage, Indian Parliament gave assent to death penalty for such crimes by amending the Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Amendment, Bill 2011. The punishment "may extend to imprisonment for life or death" in case the act of sabotage is dangerous and is likely to cause death of any other person, the amendment Bill states. Prior to the amendment, the Act provided for a jail term of one to three years' for acts of sabotage and pilferage. Replying to the debate on the Bill, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh said the existing sections in the 1962 Act did not contain adequate provisions to prevent such incidents. On the issue of the death penalty clause in the Bill, Singh said this would be applicable in "rarest of the rare cases against the mafias and saboteurs". Singh said the word "willfully has been inserted in the Bill" to safeguard innocent people who have either accidentally or by mistake caused harm to any pipeline.