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The number of people executed in India since independence in 1947 is a matter of dispute; official government statistics claim that only 57 people had been executed since independence. However, available information from other sources indicates that the official government figures are false, and the actual number of executions in India may run to several thousand.

Research by the People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) has located government records of 1,422 executions in 16 states in the decade from 1953 to 1963 alone. PUDR located this information in an appendix of the 35th report of the Fourth Law Commission in 1967. In 2015, the National Law University Delhi compiled a list of persons executed in India since 1947 and found that at least 752 individuals had been executed, including the period from 1 January to 15 August 1947. Their report was compiled "as per responses received from Central prisons in India. Certain prisons have either provided information only for a limited period or refused to provide any information or did not have any records available." Therefore, the actual number of persons would be much more than 752. While information about the number of executions should be available with individual prison departments within each state, the government has been reluctant to share such information. For example, authorities in Kerala claimed that all records of executions had been destroyed by termites. Andhra Pradesh gave the same reason for not furnishing post-1968 records. Bihar claimed that the state did not maintain records of executions, while Tamil Nadu's Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) refused to provide any records at all. According to Alexander Jacob, Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) of Kerala, "nearly 50 people had been executed in Kerala in the post-Independence period".

Rasha alias Raghuraj Singh, executed on 9 September 1947 at Jabalpur Central Jail, is presumed to be the first person executed in independent India. Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma, who were hanged on 20 March 2020, were the last persons to be executed in India. Rattan Bai Jain, executed on 3 January 1955 at Tihar Jail, is presumed to be the first woman executed in independent India.

List

This is not an exhaustive list of prisoners executed in independent India, and is not meant to be a reference for the total number of prisoners who have been executed in India since independence. There are no official collated figures available for executions in India, and this list has been compiled from multiple sources. Unless otherwise noted, all persons were executed by hanging.

See also

• Capital punishment in India

References

1. ^ "'Number of executions much higher than 55'". The Times of India. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
2. ^ "The Telegraph - Calcutta : At Leisure". telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on April 10, 2005. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
3. ^ "State-wise list of prisoners executed in India since 1947" (PDF). deathpenaltyindia.com. National Law University Delhi. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
4. ^ "In abolishing death penalty, Travancore set an example". The Hindu. 7 January 2013. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
5. "Two sisters to be first women hanged in India". Telegraph.co.uk. 18 August 2014. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
6. "Two sisters from Maharashtra's Kolhapur may become the first women to be hanged in India". The Times of India. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
7. ^ "Hangman gets his last chance". telegraphindia.com. The Telegraph. 5 August 2004. Archived from the original on January 3, 2005.
8. "Hanged for slaying 3". The Straits Times. 4 January 1955. p. 2.
9. ^ "Execution trajectory in India". DNA. DNA. 21 November 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
10. "55 years after former Punjab CM Partap Singh Kairon's assassination, son opens political conspiracy chapter". Hindustan Times. 2020-08-21. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
11. "After 36 yrs, prison in Kerala all set to witness execution | Thiruvananthapuram News - Times of India". The Times of India. TNN. Apr 7, 2015. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
12. ^ "Ranga-Billa redux: How rapists were sent to gallows". hindustantimes.com/. Archived from the original on April 10, 2015. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
13. "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Kaleidoscope". tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
14. "Beant Singh's assassin to be hanged in Patiala on March 31". The Hindu. 15 March 2012.
15. "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Kaleidoscope". tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
16. Rejith Balakrishnan (Mar 22, 2020). "Kerala has 16 convicts on death row | Thiruvananthapuram News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2022-01-26.
17. "Killers on death row long for mercy". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on September 30, 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
18. "Ripper-style' murders on the rise". The Hindu. 2002-09-01. Archived from the original on 1 October 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
19. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-02-17. Retrieved 2015-01-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
20. "'I hanged my first victim when I was 16'". indianexpress.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
21. "Suresh Chandra Bahri vs State of Bihar". Indian Kanoon. As cited by Supreme Court of India
22. "Kasabs execution second fastest in the country? - NDTVProfit.com". ndtv.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
23. ^ "Former judges call for commutation of death penalty". The Hindu. 22 August 2012.
24. "Surja Ram - Death Penalty Project: India". deathpenaltyindia.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
25. "Man who beheaded 5 daughters to be hanged by Kasab's executioner today". The Times of India. 2013-08-08. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
26. Dhananjoy Chatterjee V. State of West Bengal (Supreme Court of India 11 January 1994), Text.
27. Kulkarni, Kaustubh; Abbas, Naeem (21 November 2012). "Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab executed secretly, sparks celebrations". Reuters. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
28. "Yakub Memon Hanged in Nagpur Jail". Hindustan Times. 30 July 2015. Archived from the original on July 30, 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
29. "Justice for Nirbhaya: 4 men convicted for gang-rape hanged 7 years after brutal crime". India Today. March 20, 2020. Retrieved 2021-01-25.

External links

• Death Penalty Research Project's list of prisoners executed in India since 1947

• Capital punishment in India
• Lists of executed people
• People executed by India
• Lists of Indian people