From Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Six persons have been awarded death sentence in Meghalaya between 2001 and 2011 which is more than any other Northeaster states barring Assam, a report of the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) said.
In total 1,455 persons awarded death penalty in India during this period which averages to – one death penalty in less than every third day, the report said.
The highest number of death penalty was imposed in Uttar Pradesh (370) followed by Bihar (132), Maharashtra (125), Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (95 each), Madhya Pradesh (87), Jharkhand (81) , West Bengal (79) and Delhi (71). In Northeast Assam which has the highest population 21 persons have been awarded death sentence during this period followed by Meghalaya (6), Manipur (3) and Tripura(2).
In the rest of the NE States – Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim there was no death penalty.
“Death penalty is no longer the exception but the rule.”- said Suhas Chakma, Coordinator of the National Campaign for Abolition of Death Penalty in India and Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.
Thousands of convicts also remain on death row, the report said. This is established by the fact that during this period many persons were commuted from death penalty to life imprisonment. The ACHR is advocating for abolition of death penalty since it is not serving the stated purpose of deterrent
There is no scientific or empirical basis to suggest that death penalty acts as a deterrent against any crime, Chakma said.
On the other hand though no execution had been carried out since the execution of Dhananjoy Chatterjee on 14 August 2004, the number of murder cases are on decline, he said.
According to the National Crimes Record Bureau, in 2001 a total of 36,202 murder cases were registered in India. Though the population of India increased from 1.028 billion in 2001 to 1.21 billion in 2011, the murder cases indeed reduced to 34,305 in 2011.