New Delhi: In the wake of rising criminal atrocities against girl child like rape, the Madhya Pradesh government on Sunday has proposed to constitute a law to award death penalty to convicts of raping minor girls or girls below the age of 12.
Earlier MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said to strengthen strict laws to protect girls. The bill to implement new laws, came up in the cabinet for discussion, which if accepted, will become the first-ever law in India to fight against child rape.
MP finance minister Jayant Malaiya while briefing the journalists after the meeting said the proposed bill known as Public Safety Bill would be introduced in the assembly’s winter session beginning Monday.
CM Shivraj had earlier strongly condemned rape, calling it “a bigger crime than murder,” he spoke about awarding death penalty to rapists after the 2012 December rape case incident.
He had previously demanded special Parliament session to amend the laws for rapists with death penalty announcing no government jobs shall not be granted to the persons found guilty of rape and molestation.
He added that those found guilty of molestation, harassment or stalking should also be given harsher punishment and that a fine of Rs 1 lakh should be imposed on such offenders.
The proposed bill, if passed, will amend section 493, which states punishment of offenders under the pretext of marriage and also will add subsections to section 376 of IPC.
Once the bill has a clear go in the Assembly, it will further be sent for president’s approval to be constituted as a law.
The government has already said that the Bill will make a provision that the public prosecutor will be heard before considering the bail plea of the accused.
CM Shivraj has also tweeted about the Bill on Twitter.
According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2016 reports Madhya Pradesh ranked highest to report a number of rape cases that is 4,391 in 2015 which was followed by Maharashtra which recorded 4,144 cases.
The report further stated MP has second highest for reporting sexual offenses against children, with 1,687 cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act in 2015.
Maharashtra ranked number one with the highest number of child rape cases 3,078 in 2015.