Death penalty for those who rape children under 12: Indian govt

World Saturday 21/April/2018 14:24 PM
By: Times News Service
Death penalty for those who rape children under 12: Indian govt

Muscat: India’s central government signed an order to introduce the death penalty for people convicted of raping children below 12 years of age.

The union cabinet cleared the ordinance or emergency executive order, in a meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi shortly after his return from a five-day foreign trip.

The Centre also cleared another executive order making it legal for the government to seize the property of economic offenders such as celebrity designer Nirav Modi and noted businessperson Vijay Mallya.

The ordinance over the rape of children comes in the backdrop of cases of sexual assaults in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. An eight-year-old girl had been raped and murdered in Kathua in Jammu in January. Another girl from another marginalised community was raped in Unnao in April.

In the former case, protesters said that members of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had supported the accused while in the latter, a BJP state lawmaker is the accused.

The move is being seen as a move to douse popular public anger over the two cases. Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi had floated the idea to introduce the death penalty for raping children.

However, not everyone is pleased with the move. Some human rights activists cite data that death penalty for rapists doesn’t serve as a deterrent, adding that it was partly due to the poor conviction rate in such cases.