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The Cabinet approved a comprehensive anti-hijacking Bill that provides for death penalty for hijackers. The Anti-Hijacking Bill, 2015, will amend the Anti-Hijacking Act of 1982. The need for amending the existing law arose after India signed the Beijing Protocol on 2010.
The Bill comes nearly 16 years after IC 814, an Indian Airlines aircraft, was hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan.
The Bill has enlarged the definition of hijacking and includes not just those who physically commit the offence but also their accomplices. It also provides for an enhanced punishment to the perpetrators as well as the area of jurisdiction, official sources said.
