Hyderabad, September 25: The Andhra Pradesh government will soon promulgate an ordinance for treating acid attack as a serious offence and punishing the guilty with a minimum jail term of three years.
State Home Minister P Sabita Indra Reddy told reporters here today that another ordinance too would be brought in amending Section 509 of Indian Penal Code, thereby making it a non-bailable offence.
The state Cabinet approved these ordinances at its meeting yesterday, the Home Minister said today.
The government’s decision to enact ordinances came in the wake of rise in number of acid attacks on women in recent days. The new legislation would also deal with attacks on women in general apart from acid attacks, the Home Minister said.
In fact, the government proposed to enact a legislation in the Budget session of state Legislature last month incorporating a new provision in the Indian Penal Code for treating acid attack as a “special crime” with harshest punishment.
Besides, some provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act were proposed to be suitably amended to support the amendment in the IPC.
—Agencies