Union minister Maneka Gandhi to ask for death penalty for child rape

TNN

April 13, 2018

New Delhi, Apr 13: A "deeply, deeply disturbed" Maneka Gandhi said today that she intends to ask for the death penalty for those who rape children below 12 years of age.

The women and child development minister's comment, in a video released today, comes amid a groundswell of horror at the bid to communalise the gory gang rape and murder of eight-year-old Asifa in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua, and another incident of rape in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.

"Am deeply, deeply disturbed by the rape case in Kathua, and all the recent rape cases. I and the ministry intend to bring an amendment to the POCSO Act asking for the death penalty for the rape of children below 12 years of age," said Maneka.

POCSO is the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. It was framed to protect children from offenses of sexual abuse, sexual harassment and pornography and to provide a child-friendly system for the trial of these offences.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti + also said yesterday that her government would enact a law to make rape of minors punishable by death.

“We will never ever let another child suffer in this way,” she tweeted.

Yesterday, another UNion minister, VK Singh, also tweeted his horror at the Kathua atrocity.

“We have failed Ashifa (sic) as humans. But she will not be denied justice,” Singh tweeted.

Asifa, who belonged to a nomad Muslim community, had been held captive, sedated and raped for several days at a temple before she was murdered at Rassana village in Kathua district, according to the J&K Police crime branch investigation based on DNA test, forensic evidence and post-mortem report.

The body of the eight-year-old was recovered from Rassana forest on January 17, a week after she had gone missing while grazing horses in the area. The state government handed over the case to the crime branch following massive protests in the state.

The accused, including the mastermind Sanji Ramthe, his son Vishal, sub-inspector Anand Dutta, two Special Police Officers Deepak Khajuria and Surender Verma, head constable Tilak Raj and civilian Parvesh Kumar, were booked under Sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of Ranbir Penal Code.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

Execution of Nirbhaya convicts will not happen on Jan 22 as mercy plea filed: Delhi govt to HC

News Network

January 15,2020

New Delhi, Jan 15: The Delhi government Wednesday told the high court that execution of the death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case will not take place on January 22 as a mercy plea has been filed by one of them.

The four convicts -- Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) -- are to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail. A Delhi court had issued their death warrants on January 7.

Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal were told by the Delhi government and the Centre that the petition filed by convict Mukesh, challenging his death warrant, was premature.

The Delhi government and the prison authorities informed the court that under the rules, it will have to wait for the mercy plea to be decided before executing the death warrant.

They also said that none of the four convicts can be executed on January 22 unless the present mercy plea is decided.

The Supreme Court had on Tuesday dismissed the curative pleas of Mukesh and Vinay.

The mercy plea hearing began Wednesday morning and will continue in the afternoon.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

India would not discriminate among religions, we are not a theocratic country like Pakistan: Rajnath Singh

News Network

January 22,2020

New Delhi, Jan 22: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said Indian values consider all religions equal, and that is why the country is secular and never became a theocratic state like Pakistan.

Speaking at the NCC Republic Day Camp in Delhi, Singh said: "We (India) said we would not discriminate among religions. Why did we do that? Our neighbouring country has declared that their state has a religion. They have declared themselves a theocratic state. We didn't declare so."

"Even America is a theocratic country. India is not a theocratic country. Why? Because our saints and seers did not just consider the people living within our borders as part of the family, but called everyone living in the world as one family," the minister said.

Singh underlined that India had never declared its religion would be Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist and people of all religions could live here.

"They gave the slogan of 'Vasudev Kutumbakam' -- the whole world is one family. This message has gone to the whole world from here only," he added.

Comments

Very thoughtful and eye-catching statement by Defense Minister, Rajnath Singh.

Sir, I kindly request you to convey this beautiful message to your Party’s comrades, who are deprived of this dosage for long times and are badly need of this.

Also, for those from your Party, who are, time and again, spitting the venomous rhetoric against Dalits, Muslims, Christians and others alike.

Yashwant Sinhaji is now doing a wonderful job in this regard.

You will also follow his suit for sure in the days to come; that’s what your honest statement indicates.

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

PM Modi in Kolkata: Youth being misguided on CAA

News Network

January 12,2020

Kolkata, Jan 12: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said a section of the youth is being misguided about the Citizenship Amendment Act and asserted that it will not take away anybody's citizenship.

Modi also said whoever has faith in India and believes in its Constitution can become an Indian citizen.

“There are a lot of questions among the youth about the new citizenship law, and some are being misled by rumours around it... it is our duty to clear their doubts,” the PM said during an address at Belur Math in Howrah district.

“I want to make this clear again that the CAA is not about taking away anybody's citizenship, but about granting citizenship,” he added.

Modi said that some people with political interests are deliberately spreading rumours about the new citizenship law.

Lauding the youth for speaking against religious persecution of minorities, the prime minister said the energy of the country's young will form the basis of change in the 21st century. The PM is on a two-day visit to the city.

Comments