Prez nod for death to child rapists
Kovind also gives assent to the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance
President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday promulgated the criminal law amendment ordinance, paving the way for providing stringent punishment, including death penalty, for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years.
Earlier around Saturday midnight, he had also promulgated the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance that will allow the government to confiscate properties and assets of loan defaulters who flee the country. The President promulgated the economic offenders ordinance within hours of it being cleared by the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday evening. The President’s nod to the ordinance related to rape convicts, came after the Union Cabinet’s approval on Saturday for tightening the law against people involved in rape, following the public outcry over cases of sexual assault and murder of minors in Kathua and Surat and the rape of a girl in Unnao.
“Whereas Parliament is not in session and the President is satisfied that the circumstances exist which render it necessary for him to take immediate action. Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause ( 1) of article 123 of the Constitution, the President is pleased to promulgate the following ordinance,” the gazette notification said.
The ordinance stipulates stringent punishment for perpetrators of rape, particularly of girls below 16 years. Death sentence has been for rapists of girls under 12 years.
The minimum punishment in case of rape of women has been increased from rigorous imprisonment of seven years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment.
According to the ordinance, in case of rape of a girl under 16 years, the minimum punishment has been increased from 10 years to 20 years, extendable to imprisonment for rest of the life, which means jail term till the convict’s “natural life”.
The punishment for gangrape of a girl below 16 years will invariably be imprisonment for the rest of life of the convict.
Stringent punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years has been provided with the minimum jail term being 20 years which may go up to life in prison or death sentence.
In a big country like ours, if one or two incidents take place, brouhaha should not be created over it. This is not fair... Government is taking effective steps... Whatever is necessary will be done
Santosh Gangwar,
Union minister
Lucknow, April 23: Wading into a controversy, Union minister Santosh Gangwar on Sunday said “brouhaha” should not be created over one or two rape cases in a big country like India.
The remarks come at a time when the country is witnessing public outrage over brutal rape and murder of a minor girl in Kathua and that of a 17year- old girl in UP’s Unnao allegedly by a BJP MLA.
“Such incidents ( rape cases) are unfortunate situation... But sometimes you can’t stop them. Government is active everywhere and taking action which is visible to everyone,” he told reporters in Bareilly on Saturday.
“In a big country like ours, if one or two incidents take place, brouhaha should not be created over it. This is not fair... Government is taking effective steps... Whatever is necessary will be done,” he said.
Mr Gangwar, who is BJP MP from Bareilly, holds protfolio of minister of state ( Independent Charge) for Labour and Employment.
President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday promulgated an ordinance to provide stringent punishment, including death penalty, for those convicted of rape of girls below 12 years.
Under the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance cleared by a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, new fast- track courts will be set up to deal with such cases and special forensic kits for rape cases will be given to all police stations and hospitals in the long term.
In his first comments on the incidents of rape in Unnao and the sexual assault and murder of an eight- year- old girl in Kathua, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last week said that no criminal will be spared and daughters will get justice.
“Such incidents shake our sensibilities. I want to assure the nation that no criminal will be spared. Justice will be done. Our daughters will get justice,” he had said at an event to inaugurate the B. R. Ambedkar memorial here. While in London to attend the just- concluded Commonwealth Summit, Mr Modi had said that rape of a daughter was a matter of shame for the country.
In the Unnao case, the CBI arrested BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar on April 13, hours after an Allahabad high court order that he was influencing the “law and order machinery”.