INDIA TO IMPOSE DEATH PENALTY ON HIJACKERS

June 11, 2014: India will introduce a new anti-hijacking law to impose death penalty on hijackers, Xinhua news agency reports local media as saying.
The Civil Aviation Ministry plans to introduce the Anti-Hijacking Act 2014 which proposes to enforce the death sentence for convicted hijackers if there is loss of life of passengers, treat conspirators at par with those actually carrying out the hijacking, and provide for confiscation of property of guilty persons.
The new law will repeal the current law on hijacking which went into effect in 1982.
Under the new law, the ambit of hijacking is expected to be expanded from just "in-flight", which means when aircraft doors are closed to "in-service".
The law will apply to acts of violence or force both on air and the ground when aircraft doors are not 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. (Sources: BERNAMA, 11/06/2014)