Anti-hijacking bill passed in Lok Sabha

Capital punishment for ‘any death’

From now on hijacking of an aircraft will entail capital punishment in the event of death of “any person”, as Parliament on Monday passed a bill which widens the ambit of the law in dealing with such a crime.

The Anti-Hijacking Bill, 2014, was approved by the Lok Sabha through a voice vote. It was passed by the RS earlier. The passage of the bill, however, witnessed a mini political drama in the LS as the Congress and the BJP legislators engaged in blamegames involving the 1999 Indian Airlines flight IC 814 Kandahar hijacking incident. The House also remembered Neerja Bhanot, a PanAm airhostess who died saving passengers on a hijacked flight in 1986, while discussing the bill. In the previous version of the bill, hijackers could be tried for death penalty only in the event of death of hostages, such as flight crew, passengers and security personnel. In the amended law, the definition has been expanded to include death of ground staff as well. Following the amendment, the perpetrators of hijacking would now be punishable with death penalty where such an act result in the death of “any person”. Besides broadening the definition of hijacking, it also provides for an enhanced punishment to the perpetrators as well as the area of jurisdiction.