NEW DELHI, June 11 (Xinhua) -- India will introduce a new anti- hijacking law to impose death penalty on hijackers, local media reported Wednesday.
The civil aviation ministry plans to introduce the Anti-Hijacking Act 2014, which proposes to incorporate the death penalty for convicted hijackers if there is loss of life of passengers and will treat conspirators at par with those actually carrying out the hijacking, and also provide for confiscation of property of the guilty, said local daily Asian Age.
The new law will repeal the current law on hijacking which was taken effect in 1982.
Under the new law, the ambit of hijacking is also expected to be widened from just "in-flight", which means when aircraft doors are closed to "in-service".
The law will apply to acts of violence or force not just in the air but also on the ground when the aircraft doors are not yet fully secured.
In 2005, the Indian government approved a new anti-hijack policy saying that an aircraft being used as a missile can be shot down.
Source: Xinhua, July 11, 2014