Death Penalty : Executions In India Post-2000 Before Nirbhaya Case

The execution of four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case - Mukesh Singh, Akshay Singh Thakur, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Kumar Gupta - was carried out at Tihar Jail, Delhi on Friday morning at 5. 30 PM.This is the second instance of simultaneous hanging of four convicts in post-Independence India. The were hanged at the Yerawada central jail for the murder of 1 Read more at: previous instance happened in Yerwada Jail in Pune on October 25, 1983. Rajendra Jakkal, Dilip Sutar, Shantaram Jagtap and Munawar S were hanged at the Yerawada central jail for the murder of 10 people in the Joshi-Abhayankar murder cases which took place in mid-1970s. Before Nirbhaya case, four executions have taken place in India since 2000. Dhananjoy Chatterjee v. State of W.B (2004) Dhananjoy Chatterjee was a convicted rapist and murderer of an 18-year-old schoolgirl, Hetal Parekh. He was working as a security guard in an apartment. The victim lived in the same apartment that Dhananjoy was working as a security guard. On the afternoon of 5th March 1990, the victim was found dead inside her home by her mother. Since Dhananjoy was not seen in the area after the murder had been discovered, he was accused of raping and killing the girl in her apartment. He was arrested on 12 May 1990 by the Kolkata police charging him with rape, murder, and theft of a wristwatch. The sessions court convicted Dhananjoy of all offenses and sentenced him to death. The Alipore Sessions Court sentenced Dhananjoy to death in 1991. This decision was upheld by both the Calcutta High Court as well as the Supreme Court. Even though he filed mercy petitions with the Governor of West Bengal and President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, both were rejected. Dhananjoy was executed at 4:30 am on August 14, 2004, on his 39th birthday, in Alipore Central Jail Kolkata. Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab v. State of Maharashtra (2012) The infamous 26/11 Mumbai attack witnessed Kasab and 9 other terrorists carrying out a series of coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across the city. The terrorists targeted major landmarks of Ajmal Kasab and Ismail Khan carried out the attack killing as many as 58 people and injuring over 100 at CST station. Kasab who was 21 at the time, was the only surviving member of the group that launched wide destruction across the Mumbai city killing 166 people. He was captured after a shoot-out with police and was interrogated and captured with 86 offenses including murder and waging war on India. Though the prosecutors said he had confessed, Kasab's lawyers said his statement had been compelled and it was retracted. His trial began in March 2009. In May 2010, Kasab was sentenced to death by a special court. Though Kasab's lawyer called for leniency saying that his client had been brainwashed by a terrorist organization (Lashkar-e-Taiba) and could be rehabilitated, on May 7, trial judge ML Tahaliyani remarked "he should be hanged by the neck until he is dead" adding that he had lost his right to "humanitarian treatment". Kasab appealed against the sentence and the Mumbai High Court began hearing his case in October 2010. Initially, he attended the proceedings through a video link for security reasons. Though he demanded to attend court in person, the same was refused and he was reprimanded for his outburst. The Mumbai High Court rejected his appeal in February 2011. In July 2011, Kasab took his appeal against his death penalty to the Supreme Court. In the statement submitted in the court, Kasab said the prosecution had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the charges against him. He said, " he may be guilty of killing people and carrying out a terrorist act but I am not guilty of waging war against the state." On 29 August 2012, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal and upheld the death penalty by the trial court. The mercy petition filed by him was also rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee. Ajmal Kasab was hanged in prison on November 21, 2012, in Yerwada Jail, Pune. State v. Mohd. Afzal & Ors. (Afzal Guru's case, 2013) On December 13, 2001, five armed personnel drove into Parliament in a car and inflicted heavy casualties on the security men on duty. In the gun battle, the five terrorists who tried to enter into Parliament when it was in session, were killed. Nine persons including eight security personnel and one gardener succumbed to the bullets of the terrorists. 16 persons including 13 security men received injuries. On December 15, 2001, the special of the Delhi Police arrested Afzal Guru from Srinagar, his cousin Shaukat Husain Guru, Shaukat's wife Afsan Guru and S.A.R. Gilani, a lecturer of Arabic at Delhi University with the help of leads relating to car and cellphone records. An FIR was lodged by the police on 13 December and all the accused were tried under charges of waging war, conspiracy, murder, attempt to ...

Death Penalty : Executions In India Post-2000 Before Nirbhaya Case

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