SRINAGAR: More than 400 prisoners are serving death sentence in India at present and 10 of them are from the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the Asian Centre for Human Right (ACHR) has said.
In its report “Mercy on Trial in India”, the rights group said the Uttar Pradesh state has 106 death row convicts – the maximum number of death row convicts in the country.
With 63 death row convicts, Karnataka follows UP.
Maharashtra has 51; Bihar (42); Delhi 27; Gujarat 19; Punjab 16; Kerala 14; Tamil Nadu 12; while Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh each has 10 death row convict prisoners.
The report said 13 out of the total convicts on death row are women.
The report said the President of India has so far rejected 21 mercy petitions in such cases.
The ACHR has called upon the Government of India to immediately put a moratorium on death penalty with the aim for its eventual abolition “as each execution moves India further away from the accepted international administration of justice.”
