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  1. #131
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    1993 Mumbai blasts verdict: Tahir Merchant, Feroz Khan awarded death penalty, Abu Salem gets lifer

    Mumbai: Tahir Merchant and Feroz Abdul Rashid Khan, two of the accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, were awarded the death sentence by a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activity (TADA) Court on Thursday in Mumbai.

    Other accused, Abu Salem and Karimullah Khan, were sentenced to life imprisonment.

    Riyaz Siddiqui was sentenced for ten years.

    The court had convicted six people, including the mastermind of the 1993 serial blasts that had killed 257 and injured 713 people, Mustafa Dossa and Abu Salem, on June 16 this year.

    Dossa had died on June 28 following which, the case against him was closed.

    The CBI had claimed that the role of Dossa was “more severe” than Yakub Memon, who was hanged in July 2015 in the same case.

    The CBI had also said that Dossa, Merchant and Feroz, were “main conspirators”.

    Arguments over the degree of sentences continued after the conviction in June and concluded on August 10.

    All the accused were facing multiple charges like criminal conspiracy, waging war against the government and murder of people.

    This was the second leg of the trial – in the first leg that concluded in 2007, the TADA court had convicted 100 accused in the case, while 23 people were acquitted.

    The attacks were planned by Dawood Ibrahim, India’s ‘most wanted’ fugitive who also has his name prominently figuring on the ‘most wanted’ lists of the US and the Interpol.

    http://www.bhatkallys.com/latest-new...em-gets-lifer/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #132
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Indian businessman, aide sentenced to death for brutal rape, murder of housemaid in 2006

    NEW DELHI (Xinhua) -- A special court has sentenced an Indian businessman and his domestic help to death for the brutal rape and murder of a 25-year-old housemaid in their home in Noida city on the outskirts of the national capital in 2006.

    The court of India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) pronounced the quantum of punishment on Friday, a day after holding businessman Maninder Singh Pandher and his aide Surinder Koli guilty in the crime they had committed in their house in Nithari village in Noida.

    This was the ninth of a total of 16 cases in the macabre serial killings that took place in Nithari in 2005 and 2006. While Koli has been found guilty in the earlier eight cases and awarded death penalty, Pandher was convicted in three cases and sentenced to death in two.

    Handing down the punishment in the latest case, special CBI judge P.K. Tiwari said both Koli and Pandher were involved in the rape and murder of housemaid Anjali in 2006, and they deserved to be punished in the strictest manner.

    "Koli had dragged the victim inside the house and made her unconscious, raped her, and then ate her flesh, therefore death sentence is the only option in law. Pandher was also involved in the crime. Both will be hanged till death," the court said.

    Anjali, who used to work as a housemaid in Noida, was reported missing in October 2006. Her killing came to light after Koli's arrest in December that year when police discovered skulls and bones of 16 persons, mostly children, near Pandher's house.

    The CBI took over the case from the local police subsequently and chargesheets have been filed in 10 out of 16 cases. The other cases are under trial.

    http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20..._136813285.htm

  3. #133
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Edited

    Govt’s prerogative to decide on methods of execution of convicts: Supreme Court

    Indian Express

    The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned a plea seeking abolition of executing a death row convict by hanging and put the ball in the Centre’s court. The apex court said it was the government’s prerogative to decide the modes of carrying out capital punishment.“We can’t say what should be the mode of carrying out a death sentence. Tell us what is happening in other countries” the SC bench, comprising of Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said, as it adjourned the plea filed by lawyer Rishi Malhotra by four weeks. On October 6 last year, Malhotra had filed a petition in the apex court and sought quashing of Section 354(5) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which states that when a person is sentenced to death, he shall be hanged by the neck till he is dead.

    The SC bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, had then issued a notice to the Centre, seeking its response within three weeks on the PIL, while saying that the legislature could think of changing the law so that a convict, facing death penalty, dies “in peace and not in pain”.

    On Tuesday, Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, representing the Centre, said it was still working on other methods that could be used for capital punishment in place of hanging and sought time. The government said they had tested lethal injections, but it was not workable. “Lethal injections are not workable as there are instances of it failing,” the government said.

    During the hearing in October, Malhotra had contended that the 187th Report of the Law Commission advocated the removal of the present mode of execution from the statute. He also referred to Article 21 (Right to Life) of the Constitution and said it also included the right of a condemned prisoner to have a dignified mode of execution so that death becomes less painful. The PIL had listed intravenous lethal injection, shooting, electrocution or gas chamber as other viable options.

    “This means the right to a dignified life up to the point of death including a dignified procedure of death. In other words, this may include the right of a dying man to also die with dignity when his life is ebbing out,” the petition said.

    http://indianexpress.com/article/ind...court-5017831/

  4. #134
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    I don't believe that India will ever use an alternative method of execution since they rarely execute people. But if they did pick another method it would probably be shooting since its cheap and easy. The chair would require an expert and a constant stream of people for it to not have problems. Gas is too expensive and dangerous for India so its not an option.

  5. #135
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Most death row convicts not depressed: D V Guruprasad

    BY BALA CHAUHAN
    THE DECCAN CHRONICLE

    Majority believe sentence will be commuted to life.

    Bengaluru: How does a death row convict face the gallows? How does he spend his last days? Does he fear death? These questions led the former director general of police and chief executive officer of M.S. Ramaiah Health Sciences, D.V. Guruprasad, to meet in person 44 condemned convicts in Karnataka and West Bengal prisons. According to him, unlike in the US, where majority of death row convicts suffer from death row syndrome and go into depression fearing the electric chair, the condemned convicts in India do not live under the fear of death, because somewhere they believe that they will escape the noose and their death sentence will be commuted to life, said the former top cop.

    “Many of them told me that that barring the two terrorists – Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru, who were hanged to death in 2012 and 2013 – only Dhananjay Chatterjee was judicially executed in Kolkata in 2004,” he said. Dr Guruprasad said that barring very few exceptions, most of the condemned convicts in India live like the other convicts in prison with some mandatory legal restrictions. He met 44 condemned convicts in Karnataka and West Bengal in the Hindalga Central prison and Alipore Central Correctional Home for a pioneer study on the mental and emotional health condition of death row convicts.

    Last year, he had approached prison officers in Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Delhi and had taken the mandatory court permission before venturing on this rather dark study; on the mental and emotional health of condemned convicts. “I often used to wonder how the death row convicts lived their ‘last’ days? What was their mental condition? Were they sad, angry or depressed and had given up on life? I was pleasantly surprised to find out that out of 44 death row convicts, who I met, only four were depressed, but I was told by prison doctors that the onset of depression in all the four was not consequent to their death sentence. I found out that none of them believed that they would be hanged. They looked confident that their sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment. The other major contributing factor for their mental and physical well being in the face of the impending black warrant is that they are not isolated. They live in barracks close to the other convicts. In the US, condemned convicts suffer from death row syndrome, perhaps because of their solitary confinement. In India, they are not isolated completely. Unlike the life convicts, they are now allowed to do vocational work and they have a lot of free time on their hands. They are allowed to meet their family members with permission from the prison officials. In Kolkata, condemned convicts can also make phone calls under official supervision,” Dr Guruprasad said.

    The former police officer said that prisons are more like correctional centers and have lot of productive and positive activities for the rehabilitation of inmates. “They have libraries, sports fields, vocational centers and prayer halls. Many voluntary organizations visit the prisons to counsel the prisoners and lend them legal aid free of cost,” he said.

    https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nati...uruprasad.html

  6. #136
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    Convict hurls bricks, grabs police rifle after getting death penalty

    A man, who was sentenced to death for raping and murdering a minor girl, threw bricks at journalists and lawyers and snatched a rifle from a policeman as he came out of the District and Sessions court premises on Wednesday morning.

    Salim (35) picked up some bricks lying on the ground while walking out of the court premises and hurled them at journalists and lawyers.

    He then grabbed a rifle from a policeman's hand. The police then wrested the firearm back from him and took him away in an autorickshaw.

    Salim was convicted and sentenced to death for raping and murdering a nine-year-old girl. The police said Salim raped the girl on August 15, 2012, at Janata Colony, Tavarekere, on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

    Salim, a resident of Goriplaya in Bengaluru, had visited his sister in Tavarekere on that day. He had raped the girl at his sister's house when no one was at home and later killed her there. The Tavarekere police had registered the case and arrested him.

    The judge sentenced him to 10 years in jail and Rs 50,000 fine for the rape and death sentence for the murder.

    (Source: The Deccan Herald)
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #137
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    Mahatma Gandhi's conspirators hanged even before murder trial attained legal finality: SC told

    The petitioner said Nathuram Godse and Narayan Dattatraya Apte were hanged after the High Court of East Punjab confirmed their death sentences on June

    As the nation observed the 70th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on Monday, a claim has been made in the Supreme Court that the alleged conspirators were hanged even before the murder trial had attained legal finality from the top court.

    The apex court, which is seized of a PIL seeking re-investigation into Gandhi's assassination, has been told that the 2 alleged conspirators - Nathuram Godse and Narayan Dattatraya Apte - were hanged on November 15, 1949, 71 days before the Supreme Court of India came into existence on January 26, 1950.

    In an affidavit, Pankaj Phadnis, a trustee of Abhinav Bharat, has countered the report of advocate Amarender Sharan, an amicus curiae in the matter, who has not supported his plea to reopen probe into Gandhi's death.

    Gandhi was shot dead on January 30, 1948 at Birla House in Lutyens' Delhi.

    The petitioner said both Godse and Apte were hanged after the High Court of East Punjab confirmed their death sentences on June 21, 1949. But the privy council did not grant permission to their families to file an appeal on the ground that it would not have been decided before January 26, 1950 when the Indian Supreme Court was to be born, he claimed.

    Phadnis, in his reply to the report of the amicus curiae, referred to lawyer Rajan Jayakar, who studied the original records of the trial while curating an exhibition to mark the Supreme Court of India's golden jubilee in 2000.

    He quoted Jayakar as saying "the privy council was part of the British Parliament. While appeals from England were heard by the House of Lords, those from British colonies were heard by the judicial commission of the Privy Council."

    During the British rule, Privy Council was the highest court of appeal in India, which was later known as the Federal Court of Appeal. After the replacement of the Federal Court with the Supreme Court of India in January 1950, the Abolition of Privy Council Jurisdiction Act 1949 came into effect.

    Phadnis said "on October 26, 1949, the Privy Council did not grant leave (permission to file the petition) to the families of the accused, including Godse, who had filed the SLP.

    "They had refused to grant leave on the ground that even if they did admit the petition, it would not have been decided before January 26, 1950 when the Indian Supreme Court was to be born. Once the Supreme Court of India came into existence, the jurisdiction to hear the SLP would lie with it."

    Thus, the Mumbai-based researcher claimed that "Gandhi murder trial has not yet attained legal finality."

    To support his contention, Phadnis referred to the Supreme Court's 2017 judgement in the December 22, 2000 Red Fort attack case in which it was held that an open court hearing is mandatory even at a review stage in cases where death penalty has been awarded.

    "Let alone an Open Court hearing, Narayan Dattatraya Apte, accused no. 2, who claimed to be innocent, was not even left alive for 71 days to be able to reach the doorstep of this Hon'ble (Supreme) Court," he said in the affidavit.

    Phadnis, who gave point-wise reply to counter the amicus curiae's report, said the State of Dominion of India chose to refuse to allow the Supreme Court of India to adjudicate the matter of murder of Mahatma Gandhi.

    "It (Dominion of India) ought to have waited for the Supreme Court of India to come into existence, which event was scheduled to happen within just three months of the decision of the Privy Council on October 26, 1949. In an act of indecent haste which raises suspicions, the State of Dominion of India hanged Godse and Apte on November 15, 1949," it said.

    The affidavit said Godse and Apte were 2 very different individuals.

    "Godse had confessed to his crime. His hanging may have been irregular but not illegal. The hanging of Apte, when he was claiming to be innocent and had a legal right to have his claim of innocence adjudicated by the Supreme Court of India, was definitely illegal," it said, adding that "this illegal hanging had material consequences for minor innocent children of Apte."

    The researcher said the mentally-challenged son of Apte is said to have died within a year of his hanging and his one-year-old daughter is said to have not survived her childhood.

    "The blame for untimely death of these two minor innocent defenceless children must surely lie on the Respondent, who illegally killed their father. They were murdered as surely by the Respondent as was the Mahatma by Godse," it said.

    Phadnis stressed that Gandhi's case was a fit case for invocation of the extraordinary powers of the apex court under Article 142 of the Constitution to bring about a final legal closure by posthumously adjudicating the claim of innocence of Apte.

    (Source: The Hindustan Times)
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  8. #138
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    1993 Mumbai bomb blast convict Tahir Merchant dies in Yerwada Central jail

    Indian Express

    Tahir Merchant, a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim and death row convict in 1993 serial blasts case, who was in Yerawada Central Prison in Pune, died in the early hours of Wednesday due to a suspected cardiac arrest.

    Merchant (63), who was known to have arranged the logistics for the 12 blasts on March 12, 1993 that killed 257 persons and left 718 injured, was lodged at the high security Yerwada prison since last few months. He was known by his alias Tahir Taklya.

    Additional director general (Prisons) Bhushankumar Upadhyay confirmed that Merchant died in the early hours of Wednesday.

    A Yerwada prison official said, “He complained of chest pain around 3 am and was taken to the Sassoon general hospital. he was declared dead at 3.45 am. The death is suspected to be due to a heart attack. A post mortem and inquiry by police will be conducted to ascertain the cause of death, as the procedure is, for any death in custody or prison.”

    The family members of Merchant have been informed by the jail officials.

    http://indianexpress.com/article/ind...-jail-5142124/

  9. #139
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    Union Cabinet approves Ordinance for death penalty for rape of girls under 12 years

    By The Hindu

    The Union Cabinet on Saturday approved promulgation of an Ordinance to provide death penalty for rapists of girls below 12 years, according to a senior government official.

    The Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance provides for stringent punishment of a jail term of minimum 20 years or life imprisonment or death for rape of a girl under 12 years.

    In the case of a gang rape of a girl below 12 years, there will be a punishment of life in jail or a death sentence.

    For the crime of a rape of a girl under 16 years, minimum punishment has been increased from 10 years to 20 years, which is expandable to imprisonment for rest of life.

    Minimum punishment in case of rape of women has also been increased from rigorous imprisonment of 7 years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment.

    The Ordinance also provides for speedy investigation and trial which needs to be compulsorily completed within two months.

    There will also be no provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of rape or gang rape of a girl under 16 years.

    http://www.thehindu.com/news/nationa...le23626717.ece
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #140
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    Indian child killer sentenced to death 23 days after arrest, raises fears over trial fairness

    Naveen Gadke was arrested on April 20 and charged with the rape and murder of a baby girl in central India

    3 weeks later a court sentenced the 26-year-old odd-job man to death in the fastest such trial known to have happened in modern India, a nation where public outrage is running high because of a series ofrapes and related killings.

    Police, prosecutors and the district court in the city of Indore worked at a furious pace to get the conviction quickly, amid a backlash on the streets, including marches in this city of about 2 million, 550 miles south of Delhi.

    This is in a country where Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government last month introduced the death penalty for rapes of girls under 12 years in response to public pressure but which has a notoriously slow court system, with cases taking at least 6 years on average to final ruling, according to governance tracking group Daksh.

    But the pace of the trial, the intensifying push for speedy hearings in rape cases, and questions about the legal defence provided to Gadke - who pleaded not guilty - have raised concerns among some legal rights advocates.

    They are fearful there will be wrongful convictions and hangings when a defendant cannot afford to hire a good lawyer.

    "While expeditious trials are ideal, these should not be at the cost of fair trial safeguards like the right to adequate time to prepare a defence and the presumption of innocence," said Leah Verghese, senior campaigner at human rights group Amnesty International India, in an email response to questions.

    Senior Supreme Court lawyer Rebecca John said she was concerned. "As a principle, I am opposed to rushing through investigative processes and trial processes" she said.

    But reflecting the mood of the nation, well-known Supreme Court lawyer Dushyant Dave, a vocal supporter of capital punishment, said India "needs to send at least 500 people to death in the next one year to end this endemic" of rape.

    "Our system is archaic and extremely inefficient," he added.

    Such views have resonated with the mother of the dead 3-month-old girl as she sat on the front yard of a 200-year-old palace where her homeless family sleeps in the open.

    She told Reuters she was happy with the swift verdict but her daughter would get justice only when Gadke is hung to death, just as quickly.

    "Once such men are hanged, no one will dare to do anything like this to any girl," she said.

    Rape victims and their families cannot be identified under Indian law.

    Gadke could not be contacted as journalists are not allowed to speak with convicts in jail as per a home ministry directive. Sachin Verma, Gadke's lawyer, said his client told him that his estranged wife "framed" him, but said little else.

    Reuters could not trace Gadke's wife to seek comment.

    SLAPPING AND SHOVING

    At trial, the mother, police officers and the prosecution lawyer said security cameras showed Gadke taking away the infant as she lay asleep by her parents. 15 minutes later, he was seen coming out of the basement of a nearby building, where her blood-smeared body was found, police said.

    Medical tests, completed quickly under instructions from government officials, confirmed she was raped, and the semen from a vaginal swab was found to be a DNA match with Gadke, according to court documents reviewed by Reuters.

    Gadke's lawyer Verma, who specialises in matters related to crimes against children, said he reluctantly took the case on state government orders.

    That was after four other lawyers refused to defend Gadke, Verma said. In a sign of how high temperatures were rising in the community, around a dozen lawyers attacked the defendant outside the court when he first arrived, slapping and shoving him, according to police.

    Prosecutors presented 29 witnesses, including police and shopkeepers who found the victim's body, and "everybody supported the prosecution", said Verma. He presented no witnesses for Gadke's defence.

    Verma said he could have done better if he had more time to prepare for the case.

    "They had to create a story and they had to decide quickly," said Verma, who is expecting to receive 4,000 rupees ($58) from the state government for representing Gadke. "My client told me: 'Everyone has already decided I am guilty. What's the point of all this?'"

    Special prosecutor Mohammad Akram Shaikh said that they had "conclusive evidence" against Gadke.

    Judge Varsha Sharma, who deals with matters related to crimes against children and ruled on the case, declined to comment.

    SENDING A MESSAGE

    Police pressed charges against Gadke within 7 days of the crime, said Police Inspector Shivpal Singh Kushwah.

    "All of us wanted to send a message that the law can work fast, and we succeeded," he said.

    The court sat for seven straight working days to hear the case, unusual in India where one court is often dipping in and out of several cases on the same day. A government-run laboratory conducted tests on forensic evidence within 4 days of a police request. This usually takes more than a month, Kushwah said.

    After hearing details of his crime from Shaikh and the witnesses, Judge Sharma found Gadke guilty and ordered his death by hanging.

    "This falls under the rarest of rare case and it would be appropriate to hand such a criminal the toughest punishment," the judge declared.

    The sentence has to be confirmed by a higher court, for which Gadke will be provided a different lawyer by the state government. The court's decision can be challenged in the Supreme Court. An appeal toIndia's president is the last resort. The entire process can take years.

    ACCELERATION DEMANDED

    Even before Gadke's trial, there were growing calls to speed up child rape trials.

    Lower courts take an average of 5 years to complete cases of prisoners sentenced to death, high courts 1 year and 4 months, and the Supreme Court 2 years and 1 month, according to a 2016 report by the Centre on the Death Penalty in the National Law University of Delhi.

    The university study found that 74 % of 373 death row prisoners they interviewed were economically vulnerable. The majority were from low castes and religious minorities. In the Indore case, Gadke did various jobs like cleaning utensils in eateries.

    By contrast, trials involving India's rich and powerful sometimes take more than 10 years. Gurmeet Ram Rahim, a wealthy self-styled godman who had many followers, was convicted last year on charges of raping 2 followers - 15 years after the case was registered.

    Government statistics show that since 2012, when a young woman was gang raped in a moving bus in Delhi igniting national uproar, reported rape cases have climbed 60 % to around 40,000 in 2016 - about 1 every 15 minutes - with child rape accounting for about 40 %.

    (Source: The Jakarta Post)
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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