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

• 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 Though the prosecutors said he had confessed, Kasab's lawyers said his statement had been compelled and it was retracted.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 murder, etc. Provisions of the Prevention Of Terrorism Act (POTA) 2002, was later added along with the original charges.

On 18 December 2002, the special court awarded capital punishment to Guru, Shaukat, and Gilani. Shaukat's wife Afsan was found guilty for concealing the plot and was sentenced to 5 years in jail. Delhi High Court in 2003, on an appeal, upheld the conviction of Guru and Shaukat. The co-accused in the case, SAR Geelani and Afsan Guru (wife of Shaukat Husain), were acquitted by the High Court 29 October 2003. On 24 August 2005, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Afzal Guru while it commuted Shaukat's sentence from death to 10 years imprisonment. Though Guru filed a review petition before the Supreme Court, in 2005 September the same came to be dismissed by the Supreme Court.

In October 2006, Guru's wife filed a mercy petition with the then President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. In June 2007, the Supreme Court dismissed Guru's plea seeking review of his death sentence. In 2010, Shaukat Hussain Guru was released from Delhi's Tihar Jail due to his good conduct. On 3 February 2013, the President rejected Afzal Guru's mercy petition. Afzal Guru was hanged on 9 February 2013 at 8 am in Tihar Jail, Delhi.

• Yakub Memon v. State of Maharashtra (2015)

Yakub Memon was the brother of one of the prime suspects in the bombings Tiger Memon. A chartered accountant by profession, Yakub Memon was alleged to have participated in the Bombay that were masterminded by Tiger Memon and underworld mafia Dawood Ibrahim. The blasts claimed the lives of 257 people. The police claimed that Yakub Memon was arrested at New Delhi Railway Station on August 5, 1994. According to him, he surrendered himself to the police at Kathmandu in Nepal on July 28, 1994.

On July 27, 2007, The trial was conducted by Justice P.D. Kode under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court and found him guilty of the offenses. He was held guilty for criminal conspiracy to carry out terrorist activities and murder, aiding and abetting terrorist activities. He was also held for illegal possession and transportation of arms and ammunition and was punished for 14 years to 10 years and then with the death penalty.

Memon appealed for the revision of his death sentence and the same was rejected by the Supreme Court by upholding the death sentence. He also filed a review petition of the Supreme Court decision confirming his death sentence. On July 30, 2013, Justice P. Sathasivam rejected his application for oral hearings and dismissed the review petition. Later on June 1, 2014, Justices J. Khehar and C. Nagappan imposed a stay on the execution of Yakub Memon.

Maharashtra Government-issued capital punishment by fixing July 30, 2015, as the date for Yakub Memon's execution. On 22 May 2015, Memon filed a curative petition before the Supreme Court. The same was denied on 21 July 2015. He also filed a mercy petition before the Governor of Maharashtra for a stay of his execution and the same was denied. Yakub Memon was executed on 30 July 2015 in Nagpur Central Jail.