According to the “Law Z”, the statistic of capital punishment in India is increasing. Year 1975 and 1991, about 40 people were executed. Year 1995-2004 when there were no executions. Anti-death penalty activist dispute those figures, claiming much higher numbers on Death Row and actual executions.

In August 2004, a 41-year old former security man, Dhananjoy Chatterjee, was executed for raping and killing a 14 year old schoolgirl in Calcutta. This was the country’s first execution since 1995. In 2005, about a dozen people were on the country’s Death Row.

It was reported in 2006 that the number of mercy petitioners with President Abdul Kalam from convicts on death row stands at 20, including 12 were submitted when K.R. Narayanan was the president.