UP judge hands down 22 death sentences in four months

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar of a fast-track court in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, has sentenced 22 people to death in 10 cases between April and August 2026, reports India Today and Livemint. The cases include the kidnapping and murder of a lawyer, the murder of a home guard on duty, a highway robbery-murder, and other killings. Diwakar had earlier gained national attention in 2022 when, as a civil judge in Varanasi, he ordered a videographic survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex.

According to the Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics Report 2025 by NALSAR University's Square Circle Clinic, Uttar Pradesh trial courts handed down 28 death sentences in 20 cases during all of 2025. The pace of Diwakar's verdicts has revived discussion about the 'rarest of rare' doctrine, under which capital punishment is reserved for exceptional cases. A lawyer quoted by Livemint said death sentences should be awarded only after much deliberation, while prison rights activist Nadir Rana said the verdicts gave victims' families a sense of justice.

Diwakar had earlier sentenced 13 people to death during his posting in Bareilly, taking his total to 35. Under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, every death sentence must be confirmed by the high court before it can be carried out.