BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government is planning to bring in a legislation that will pave the passage to a mandatory death penalty for rape of minors, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Friday.
The decision was announced during the chief minister’s speech at a police training academy function near Bhopal, so there was no elaboration on how exactly the state will amend the necessary laws to give effect to its intent. Chouhan only said, “The government is considering bringing in a bill in the monsoon session of the Assembly to make a provision for the death penalty, not jail, for rapists. Once it is passed by the Assembly, the bill will be sent to the Centre and the President.”
Importantly, as per the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB’s) statistics for 2014 and 2015, Madhya Pradesh reported the maximum cases of sexual assault against women in the country -- 5076 and 4391 cases respectively.
Presently, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) stipulates a punishment ranging from seven years to life imprisonment for rape convicts.
During his speech after the passing out parade of the academy’s new cadets, the chief minister emphasized the need to arrest the rising crime graph of the state and hinted at an anti-romeo approach as adopted by the new chief minister of UP, Yogi Adityanath.