The report, a copy of which DNA has, also states that though India did not register a single execution in 2016, it had more than 400 prisoners under the death penalty to be executed at the end of the year.
While a majority of countries are moving away from the death penalty, India registered a major increase in death sentences imposed in 2016. India awarded as many as 136 death sentences in 2016 as compared to 75 death sentences in 2015. The crimes for which capital punishment were awarded mainly included murders. The figure almost doubled in 2016 on account of the new anti-hijacking law, which allowed for capital punishment even in cases of hijacking (though only for those that result in the deaths of hostages, security personnel or any person not involved in the offence). The shocking facts have been documented in a report prepared by Amnesty International, which is going to release the report on Tuesday.
The report, a copy of which DNA has, also states that though India did not register a single execution in 2016, it had more than 400 prisoners under the death penalty to be executed at the end of the year. In comparison, Pakistan too recorded a significant dip of 73 per cent in the number of executions. More than 320 people were executed in Pakistan in 2015 while last year, only around 87 people were executed in the country.
The report assumes significance as it shows India is not moving away from the death penalty, as was strongly recommended by the law commission in 2015. The expansion of the scope of the death penalty through the anti-hijacking law is also inconsistent with India’s international obligations. According to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which India acceded to in 1979, countries that retain the death penalty may impose it only for “the most serious crimes”.
The Amnesty International report, however, points out that India is in the league of conservative nations that are awarding the death penalty even for ordinary crimes, or crimes that did not involve intentional killing, or crimes that do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes”, as prescribed by Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Some laws in India don’t even require a death to have occurred for the imposition of the death penalty. For example, some drug-related offences are also punishable with the death penalty in India.
Amnesty International, which comes out with a report on death sentences and executions every year, also says that in 2016, there was a considerable drop in the number of executions worldwide. A total of 1,032 people were executed in 23 countries in 2016 in comparison to 1,634 executions in 25 countries in 2015, adding that two of the 25 countries that had executed the death penalty in 2015 abolished capital punishment in 2016. Of the total executions in 2016, most took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan, in that order. The report states that though China continued to be the world’s top executioner, the true extent of the use of the death penalty in China is unknown as this data is considered a state secret.
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