India angry, govt undecided over death penalty for rapists

New Delhi, Jan 5: At a time when an angry nation is demanding capital punishment for rapists in the wake of the brutal Delhi gangrape case, government has failed to build a consensus on the issue.

"There is no consensus on amending the law to include capital punishment for rape. One or two chief secretaries have suggested but majority kept mum on the issue," said a senior officer who attended a meeting of Chief Secretaries and DGPs on Friday, Jan 4 in New Delhi.

The day-long meeting of Chief Secretaries and DGPs was convened by the Centre in the wake of the gangrape of a 23-year-old girl in Delhi. The meeting discussed threadbare various ways to check crime against women and agreed to take steps for protection of women and initiating speedy trial and conviction of criminals.

However, the issue of awarding death penalty to rapists did not get many takers. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said all suggestions, including death penalty for rape put forward by the Chief Secretaries and DGPs would be considered by the central government.

The representatives of state governments and top Home Ministry officials said rape convicts should be sentenced to life till death without any leniency or without parole.

Government had in Dec 4, 2012 introduced a bill in Parliament seeking to amend the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 by replacing the word 'rape' by the words 'sexual assault' to make the offence of sexual assault gender-neutral and also widening its scope. It proposes to enhance the punishment from the present seven years jail to life.

There was a general consensus on the definition of juvenile by bringing the age bar to 16 from 18 years in the conference.

One of the six accused in the Delhi gangrape case was juvenile and many people fear that he may escape punishment for the crime because of his juvenile status.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from PTI)