On April 2018 the president of India, Ram Nath Kovind, signed to introduce death penalty as a punishment for those that were convicted for raping girls under 12 years old. This announcement revived the debate whereas it should be abolish death penalty or not.
What do we need to know about India's death penalty? Basic information
India is one of the countries that still have in their constitution the approval of death penalty as a capital punishment. According to the Article 21 of the constitution “no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure stablished by law”, as other countries, public opinion in india had manifest the global movement in favor abolition, as they see it an inhuman act.
Even though United Nations have argued with Indian politics to abolish what they considered a cruel act against human rights, the debate was revived and protests explains that death penalty is not the solution, the real answer is to reform the police and Judicial systems and giving resources such as: proper witness protection, fast-track courts, expansive compensations for the victims… etc
Despite in the last 10 years 371 Indians were on the death- row, only 4 of them were finally executed. As india constitution has got a clemency process, prisoners on death row could be pardon by the State Governor and President of India whose got the power to suspend or commute death sentences commuting the death sentence to any other punishment provided by the Penal Code.
In which position it is India respect other countries that have also death penalty according to people executed?
As it is mentioned before, even though India still sentenced people to death, the majority of the executions are finally not carry out. So when it comes to talk if India it is between the countries with more executions, it is one with the lowest number.
Executed by death penalty in the past 15 years
In the last 15 years only 4 sentenced by death penalty were finally executed.
1.Dhanajoy Chatterjee
Dhananjoy Chatterjee was an indian security guard in Kolkata hanged in 2004 on the charges of raping and murdering a 18 girl, Hetal Parekh, in her apartment.
A controversial case that years after his execution, was the inspiration of an indian director to revive the trial in a movie, Dhananjoy, to make the audience think about his innocent and cruel death.
2. Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab a Pakistan terrorist who became involved since he was 18 years old in a criminal activity. In 2007 joined with his friends an islamist group which trained them to futher terrorist attacks. On November 2008 Kasab and nine more islamist members left Pakistan to arrive near Mumbai where the 26th placed a bomb on a taxi and after entered into the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station to opened fire to people. After several shoots with the police and all Kasab patners being killed, he was captured by the police around midnight.
In 2009 Kasab trial was opened with charges of killing 71 people. After a long process of evidences and witness Bombay High Court confirmed his death sentence by being hang on February of 2011.
3. Mohammed Afzal Guru
Mohammed Afzal Guru was a Kashmiri militan who in 2001 plot to attack India's parliament. Was one of two man sentenced to death for helping planning the attack. He was found guilty of arranging weapons for the attackers. Guru plea clemency which was finally rejected by the Supreme Court and then the President. However his execution was secretly taken by the india government which later left his body in Delhi's Tihar jail where he spent 12 years in solitary confinement.
Actual situation
After nearly two decades India followed a repressive path by sentencing 162 people to death reaching a new high. One of the causes of this increase was the recent politic reforms that president Ram Nath Kovind had taken after signing the ordinance of death penalty for those that were convicted of raping girls under 12 years old.
A long the United Nations’ 2018 moratorium on the use of the death penalty, India voted against. Even though their domestic law permits capital punishment only for the rarest of cases, death penalty it is still sentenced for those which are involved in terrorist attacks, murders or rapists. At the latest of 2018 426 people were on death-row.
However Shashi Tharoor, Chairman of the Indian Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, introduced abolitionist movement to death penalty by advocating alternative sentences and measures which declared the ineffectiveness of the death penalty.