J& K drafts new law to punish child rapists

Capital punishment if found guilty of raping minors

The Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday said that a separate new law awarding capital punishment to those found guilty of raping minors will soon be introduced in the state. It said that the draft law is being prepared.

J& K has its own criminal code, called the Ranbir Penal Code ( RPC). The Indian Penal Code ( IPC) is not application in the state under Article 370 of the Constitution of India

Soon after the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved ordinance to award death penalty to those convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age, Syed Naeem Akhter, chief spokesman of the PDP- BJP government and works minister, said, “The draft law is being prepared”.

He also said, “The government reiterates the commitment made by the chief minister to bring in a law that provides for stringent punishment to sex offenders, especially child rapists. Steps are envisaged also to ensure speedy trials and disposal of such cases.”

Amid nationwide outrage against the alleged gang- rape and murder of an 8- year- old nomad Bakarwal girl at Rasana in J& K’s Kathua district, chief minister Mufti had on April 12 tweeted, “We will never ever let another child suffer in this way. We will bring a new law that will make the death penalty mandatory for those who rape minors, so that little A****’ s case becomes the last.”

She immediately got the Opposition’s backing on the issue. Former Chief Minister and president of National Conference ( NC), the main opposition party also sought “strictest and most exemplary” punishment for the culprits of the Rasana incident and asked for convening a special session of the State Legislature to take up the issue. He had said, “We demand a special legislative session so that it could, as announced earlier, propose a bill mandating the death penalty for such heinous crimes against children”.

J& K has its own criminal code called Ranbir Penal Code ( RPC).

The Indian Penal Code ( IPC) is not application in the State under Article 370 of the Constitution of India.

However, the RPC was made on the lines of IPC prepared by Thomas Babington Macaulay.