BENGALURU: Law and parliamentary affairs minister JC Madhuswamy on Friday clarified that the government can try its best to get rape convicts rigorous punishment through existing laws, but cannot bring in the ‘Sharia law’ in a democratic country.
Reacting to Bharatiya Janata Party member Bharati Shetty’s argument on the floor of the House during zero hour, that stringent punishment like castration should be handed out to rape convicts, the minister clarified that the government has no powers. “To bring in a law on stringent punishments, amendments have to be made to the IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act, for which the state government has no power.
It has to be taken up in Parliament, for which we can request the Law Commission to intervene and send a recommendation to the Centre. I certainly feel it’s inadequate, as punishment should work as a deterrent, so that no culprit commits such heinous crimes,” Madhuswamy stated.
The minister further defended the police in the Mysuru gangrape incident, saying the accused had been nabbed and the survivor’s statement recorded before the magistrate. Madhuswamy revealed that in Mysuru, the people-police ratio is 317 personnel per 1 lakh population, and is the highest compared to the national average of 198, and state’s average of 182.
The minister also promised to appoint a woman judge to carry out in-camera hearing of the case. When opposition leader S R Patil alleged that the FIR was filed 15 hours after the incident, the minister clarified that the case had to be transferred from Krishnarajapuram to Alanahalli police station jurisdiction, and doctors at JSS Medical College Hospital referred it as a medico-legal case.