In India, death penalty debate takes on a political dimension

Indian President Pratibha Patil

The death penalty is back in the limelight in India after a long time, this time for all the wrong reasons — mostly political. The issue came back into focus after Indian President Pratibha Patil approved the executions of 2 death row prisoners. Patil accepted the Indian Home Ministry’s recommendations to reject the mercy petitions of death row prisoners Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar and Mahendra Nath Das.

Bhullar was sentenced to death in 2001 for plotting terror attacks that killed 9 people in Delhi in 1993. Das has been on death row since 1997 for committing a murder in Guwahati, Assam in 1996. It is the case of Bhullar that has added a political dimension to the issue.

These would be the 1st executions in India since 2004 when rapist-killer Dhananjay Chatterjee was hanged after then President APJ Kalam rejected his mercy plea. Although India voted against the resolution for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007, 2008 and 2010, President Patil had commuted the death sentences of 20 prisoners since November 2009. This time it’s different.

Both Bhullar and Das were moved up the queue, ahead of several other pleas – most notably that of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s killers. Bhullar’s plea was pending since 2003, whereas those of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins Murugan, Santhan and Arivu have been hanging fire since 2000. The ministry gave its final recommendation on Bhullar’s plea on August 9, 2005, while its recommendation on Gandhi’s killers were given on June 21, 2005, almost 2 months earlier.

The decision in Bhullar’s case came within 2 days of the Supreme Court issuing a notice to the Central government to explain why his mercy plea had been pending for the past 8 years. Bhullar’s case has become an issue in his home state of Punjab where State Assembly elections are slated to be held early next year.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) there has already sought “direct and immediate intervention of the Prime Minister to save the life of Bhullar on grounds of humanitarianism and civilised concern and above all national interest” while state Congress President, Amarinder Singh has said “killing a man is not going to solve the problem."

The Congress, which heads the ruling coalition in Delhi, has distanced itself from Singh. Various Sikh organisations, on the other hand, are pleading for clemency.

No one has, so far, taken up the case of Das.

The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken the issue further. It is clamouring for the death penalty being awarded to Afzal Guru, whose mercy plea is still pending with the Home Ministry. Guru was convicted for his role in the attack on India’s Parliament in 2001. The BJP is accusing the government of duplicity since Guru’s case is still pending with the Home Ministry. In Bhullar’s case, Patil acted promptly after being pulled up by the court.

None of the exchanges, however, have centred around the issue of the death penalty itself. Amnesty International has described the mercy plea rejections as a setback for human rights in the country.

“For India to revive capital punishment now would also be bucking the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty, with numbers of executions continuing to decline,” it said.

The death penalty is not a major issue in India.

Source: asiancorrespondent.com, May 31, 2011

Rejection of mercy petition condemned

Demanding review of Devender Pal Singh Bhullar's mercy petition, movement against state repression (MASR) and Punjab human rights organization (PHRO) have condemned the rejection of petition by the President. MASR convener Inderjit Singh Jaijee said the death penalty is intended for those who are a menace to society. During 15 years in prison, at no time has Bhullar shown himself to be a danger to anyone else, said Jaijee.

3 PMs – Chandersekhar, H D Deve Gowda and V P Singh) wrote to the President to convert Bhullar's death sentence to life imprisonment.

PHRO president Justice Ajit Singh Bains said imposing the death penalty on Bhullar is wrong as this is the first case when a man has been sentenced to death on the basis of confessional statement.

Under normal criminal law, a confession made before a police officer is not admissible as evidence. He said this confession is further suspect for another reason as it is signed by a thumbprint. Jaijee and Bains through a press statement said Supreme Court verdict on Bhullar's appeal was not unanimous. They said Bhullar is under depression and currently kept in a mental hospital.

Source: The Times of India, May 31, 2011

India paves way for first hangings since 2004 – if executioner can be found

Human rights campaigners have called on the Indian government not to proceed with its first executions in seven years after the President refused to commute the sentences of two men on death row.

President Pratibha Patil, following the advice of the Indian government, rejected the mercy petitions of the men, opening the way for India's first hangings since 2004. Such is the nation's unpreparedness that one of the states where the executions are to take place has begun searching for a hangman.

President Patil's office announced her decision after lawyers for Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar and Mahendra Nath Das turned to her after failing to overturn their convictions and sentences in the courts. Das has been on death row since 1997 for committing a murder in Assam, while Bhullar was sentenced to death in 2001 for his alleged role in plotting a series of terror attacks in Delhi in 1993 that left nine people dead. Supporters of the former member of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), a militant organisation that campaigned for an independent and separate Sikh state, insist he is innocent.

"Reports that India will execute two men after an encouraging 7-year hiatus are hugely disappointing, and would be a step backwards for human rights in the country," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director. "For India to use the death penalty now would also be bucking the global trend towards ending executions, numbers of which continue to decline."

In 1983, India's highest court ruled that the death penalty should be reserved for only the "the rarest of rare cases" that met conditions fixed by the court. Recently, it ruled that those responsible for so-called honour killings met the conditions for the death penalty. Courts have also extended the penalty to cases of terrorism.

Yet while India has in recent years repeatedly voted against a moratorium on the death penalty adopted by the UN General Assembly, few executions have been carried out here in the past decade. It is estimated that since November 2009, the President has commuted about 20 death sentences to terms of life imprisonment. The last execution took place in 2004 when a security guard, Dhananjoy Chatterjee, was hanged in a Kolkata jail for the rape and murder of a teenage girl 14 years earlier. It is understood that before that, the previous execution was in 1995.

Analysts say the decision to reject the latest petitions comes amid a growing politicisation of the death penalty, which may have increased after Pakistani militant Ajmal Kasab was sentenced to death for his role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Several people, especially within the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, said he should have been hanged immediately after his trial, rather than allowing for a review process that could last years.

"The issue has lost the objective sheen that it should have. The death penalty debate used to be an objective debate," said Pushkar Raj, of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, India's oldest human rights organisation. "We now have polarised political positions."

But it may be that the executions do not go ahead, at least not immediately. This week it was revealed that the state of Assam, where 45-year-old Das is being held, no longer employs an executioner, so rare is the need.

"As there is no hangman in the state, the exact date of execution is yet to be fixed," the head of Jorhat jail, where Das is being held, told the Times of India newspaper.

Supporters of Bhullar have repeated their claims that the activist was not guilty of the crime for which he has been sentenced to die.

"It is unacceptable that he faces execution based on evidence extracted under torture. This cannot be acceptable to any civilised country and it should not be acceptable to India which prides itself as the largest democracy in the world," said Prem Singh Vinning, head of the World Sikh Organisation of Canada, where Bhullar's wife lives.

Source: The Independent, May 31, 2011

Indian state forced to search for a hangman to carry out first execution in two decades

GAUHATI, India — Mahendra Nath Das was convicted of a murder so gruesome India’s courts gave him a rare death sentence and the president rejected his plea for clemency. Only one thing is keeping him from the gallows: There is no hangman.

It has been more than two decades since any convict was executed in Assam, and with no qualified executioners remaining, officials in this northeastern state are scouring the rest of the country for a candidate.

In all of India, where the death penalty is only by hanging and imposed only in the “rarest of rare” cases, there have been only two hangings in the past 15 years.

Das’ conviction for publicly decapitating a victim with a machete could make his the third.

“We have started the process of putting up the gallows,” said Brojen Das, the jailer of the prison at Jorhat, 190 miles (300 kilometers) east of Gauhati, who shares a common regional surname with the condemned man.

But it is unclear when an executioner will be found to use it.

Prison authorities have written to their counterparts in the states of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal searching for a hangman, but have so far gotten no response, said S. Thakuria, Assam’s top prison official.

Qualified executioners — who know how to prepare the rope and tie the knot so as to cause a swift death — are scarce in India. The last hanging took place in 2004, when a security guard was hanged in a Kolkata jail for the rape and murder of a teenage girl.

Nata Mullick, India’s most famous hangman, came out of retirement at age 84 to carry out that execution, earning $435 and a job for his grandson as a maintenance worker at the jail.

A third generation hangman, Mullick executed 25 of the 55 people who died on the gallows since India gained independence in 1947.

He would run repeated dry runs, using sandbags the same weight as the condemned prisoner. He waxed the rope with soap and ripe bananas and tied it with five knots, hoping his preparations would keep the pain to a minimum and ensure the prisoner’s head was not severed during the drop from the gallows.

“It’s an art: Your skills need to be honed,” Mullick said in a 2007 interview.

But Mullick died in 2009. With the hangman’s job a far from glamorous profession, and the work so sporadic, few have risen to take his place. Local media said there might be one or two hangmen still around nationally, including Mullick’s son, Mahadeb.

The search could have implications for other death row prisoners, including Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, and Afzal Guru, who was convicted in the 2001 attack on parliament that killed 14 people.

Mahendra Das’ crime traumatized Assam.

On April 24, 1996, he snuck up behind Hara Kunta as the rival official in the local transporter’s union sipped tea at a shop in a busy market in Assam’s capital, Gauhati.

With a swing of his machete, Das decapitated Kunta. Then he carried the bloody head by the hair to a nearby police station screaming, “I have killed him.”

Courts ruled that the public nature of the crime, combined with Das’ horrifying walk through the streets, warranted the death penalty.

Last month, President Pratibha Patil agreed, refusing a plea for clemency, and condemning Das to be the first person to be executed in Assam since a prisoner convicted of three murders was hanged in 1990.

Though there are no legal options left, his family continues to appeal for mercy.

“My son has already spent 15 years in jail, why kill him now,” Mahendra Das’ 75-year-old mother, Kusum Bala, told a local newspaper.

The victim’s family is impatient for the execution.

“There is no point showing sympathy to a killer like him,” Hara Kanta’s daughter-in-law Sarada Das said.

If no professional hangman can be found, prison rules would allow a convict to volunteer to carry out the execution, said Brojen Das, the jailer. No one has yet come forward, he said.

For now, Mahendra Das, 45, spends his days in a 6 foot by 12 foot (1.8 meter by 3.7 meter) prison cell, where he will remain until an executioner can be located, Brojen Das said.

“He is hoping against hope that somehow he can be saved,” he said.

Source: The Associated Press, June 1, 2011
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