Anti-rape Bill delayed again, referred to GoM

March 12, 2013
New Delhi, Mar 12: A bill which seeks to make punishment for crime against women more stringent was today referred to a Group of Ministers for further consultations after differences erupted in the meeting of the Union Cabinet on certain provisions, including lowering the age of consensual sex to 16 years.

anti-rapeSources said the hour-long special Cabinet meeting convened to clear the bill could not arrive at an agreement, following which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referred it to a GoM.

The proposed GoM is likely to have Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, sources said.

While there was unanimity in the Cabinet to pass the Bill, certain issues remained unresolved.

The bill proposes that the age of consent be lowered from 18 to 16. The issue had led to lengthy inter-ministry consultations with some arguing that it should not be reduced. The Women and Child Development Ministry had opposed the move.

Sexual intercourse under the age of consent is considered statutory rape.

Sources also said some senior ministers were not able to agree on issues such as whether the word "rape" - which is more gender specific- should replace "sexual assault" - which is gender neutral - in the proposal, and how to define voyeurism and stalking, which the bill identifies as criminal offences. The two were for the first time defined as criminal offsenses in the ordinance.

Some ministers expressed concern about not enough safeguards against false evidence and testimony.

The bill retains a key provision of the ordinance under which if rape leads to death of the victim or leaves her in a vegetative state, it can also attract death penalty. The minimum punishment is 20 years in jail which may extend upto the "natural life" of the convict.

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013 will replace the February 3 Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance.

The Ordinance will lapse on April 4 - six weeks from February 21 when the Budget session was convened.

Since the ordinance is the 'law of the land' as of today, cases of rape and similar crimes will continue to be registered under its provisions till the President signs the new bill to make it into law.

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2012 introduced in the Lok Sabha in December last will be scrapped once the new bill is introduced in Parliament, most likely later this week.

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Agencies
June 5,2020

Malappuram, Jun 5: A lawyer has filed a complaint with Superintendent of Police, Malappuram against BJP leader Maneka Gandhi and others for allegedly indulging in a hate campaign against Malappuram district and its residents.

Advocate Subhash Chandran, who hails from Malappuram, on Thursday filed a complaint seeking registration of FIR against former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi and others for allegedly indulging in a hate campaign against Malappuram and the residents of the district.

The complainant alleged that the campaign against the district was very derogatory and with a malafide intent.

The complaint stated that the unfortunate death of an elephant in Mannarkkad, Palakkad District dominated social media conversations in the last two days but a group of people deliberately added communal colour into it only to spread hatred against Malappuram, which is a Muslim majority district in Kerala.

It also stated that the elephant in question died on May 29, 2020, in Palakkad not in Malappuram as claimed by a section in social media users. Prominent news outlets operating from the South also reported that the elephant died after consuming explosive-laden pineapple in Palakkad.

The complaint also named political commentator, Tarek Fatah, for allegedly starting a hate campaign against the district and the minority community.

It alleged that Union Minister Maneka Gandhi made false and frivolous allegations against the district of Malappuram and its residents.

Chandran, through the complaint, prayed to the district police chief to register an FIR against Maneka Gandhi and others under Section 153A, 120B etc. of Indian Penal Code.

An elephant had died after she ate the pineapple stuffed with crackers and forest officials said that it died standing in river Velliyar after it suffered an injury in its lower jaw.

The elephant was seen standing in the river with her mouth and trunk in the water for some relief from the pain after the explosive-filled fruit exploded in her mouth.

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News Network
January 31,2020

New Delhi, Jan 31: Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi on Friday said she will continue her fight till the convicts in the 2012 gangrape and murder case are hanged, shortly after a Delhi court postponed the execution of death warrants till further order.

Devi told reporters her "hopes are dashed" but she will continue her fight.

"These convicts have no right to live. We keep getting disappointed by the system. I will continue my fight till the convicts are hanged," she said.

A Delhi court postponed the execution of death warrants of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case till further order.

Additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana passed the order on a plea by the convicts seeking a stay on their execution on Saturday, February 1.

Devi said because of the loopholes in law the "criminals' lawyers had the audacity to challenge me in court that they will not be hanged".

The black warrants for execution of the death sentence against Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma, Akshay Kumar and Mukesh Kumar Singh, were issued on January 17.

A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who came to be known as "Nirbhaya" (the fearless one) was gangraped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.

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News Network
April 30,2020

Hyderabad, Apr 30: A 45-day-old baby boy, who tested positive for COVID-19 when he was 20-days-old, was discharged from a state-run hospital here on Wednesday after his full recovery.

The baby from Mahabubnagar, who contracted the infection from his father, was 20-days-old at the time of admission (on April 4), a COVID-19 bulletin said.

He was discharged after being cured, it said. The baby, probably the youngest to contract the infection in the country, was treated at the state-run Gandhi hospital in the city.

State Health Minister E Rajender expressed happiness over the baby being discharged after recovery.

An official release said 35 people were discharged today and 13 of them were children.

Those who were discharged thanked the doctors and medical personnel of the hospital and the minister has lauded the doctors and other medical staff for their efforts, it said.

Among those undergoing treatment at the hospital, 10 are being treated in the ICU.

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