New Delhi: The face of the most audacious terror attacks on Indian soil, Ajmal Amir Kasab, is the latest name in the list of convicts who have been handed down death sentence by courts.
Nathu Ram Godse, killer of Mahatma Gandhi, was hanged on November 15, 1949. A right-wing extremist, he was put on trial on May 27, 1948, nearly four months after Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead at Birla House here during an evening prayer.
During the trial, Godse admitted his guilt and gave a long deposition on his reasons for carrying out the assassination. On 8 November 1949, Godse was sentenced to death.
While Godse was driven by hardline politico-religious sentiments, Ranga and Billa brutally murdered two kids in 1978 and were sent to gallows by the Supreme Court. Kuljeet Singh alias Ranga and Jasbir Singh alias Billa had kidnapped for ransom siblings Sanjay and Geeta Chopra on August 29, 1978.
Three days later, the bodies of the brother and sister were recovered. Ranga and Billa were arrested from a train and were executed in 1982 after a long trial which concluded four years after the crime was committed.
In 1978, the Indian Council for Child Welfare instituted two bravery awards for children under the age of 16, the Sanjay Chopra Award and the Geeta Chopra Award, given each year along with the National Bravery Award.
In another sensational murder known as Joshi-Abyankar murder case, four students of Pune's famous Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya were found guilty for 10 killings between January 1976 to March 1977.
Rajendra Jakkal, Dilip Dhyanoba Sutar, Shantaram Kanhoji Jagtap and Munawar Harun Shah were commercial art students at the Mahavidyalaya who killed Achyut Joshi from Vijaynagar, his wife and their son before decamping with valuables.
The quartet also committed another sensational murder when they hacked to death five family members of noted Sanskrit scholar 88-year-old Kashinath Shastri Abhyankar.
In the fastest trial, the accused were given death sentence within four months on September 28, 1978. It was later upheld by Supreme Court. Their mercy petition was rejected by the President and they were hanged on November 27, 1983.
Prime conspirators of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination, Kehar Singh and Satwant Singh, were hanged on January 6, 1989. They were the last men to be hanged in country's largest prison - the Tihar jail.
While Beant Singh - one of the killers of Gandhi - was killed by the bodyguards, Kehar Singh and Satwant Singh went through an exhaustive trial where their crime was upheld by the court.
In 1995, Auto Shanker, a dreaded serial killer, was sent to gallows for six brutal rapes and murders between 1988-89. Shanker was hanged on August 27, 1995 at the Salem Central Prison.
The latest case of execution was of Dhananjay Chatterjee who killed 14-year-old Hetal Parikh on March 5, 1990 at her apartment residence in Bhowanipur.
He was kept at Alipore Jail for 14 years before his mercy plea was rejected by former President A P J Abdul Kalam and he was hanged to death on August 14, 2004.