PM pushes parliament for tough anti-rape law

President Pranab Mukherjee confers the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development on Ela Ramesh Bhatt at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi yesterday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief and National Advisory Council chairperson Sonia Gandhi are also seen.

Agencies/New Delhi

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday he hoped parliament which resumes this week would enact a tough law against rapists following the fatal gang-rape of a student in New Delhi.

The comments came two weeks after the government passed temporary measures to toughen the punishments for rapists, following outraged protests over the case of the 23-year-old student who was gang-raped on a bus in December.

Singh told reporters his government hoped the budget parliament session which opens Thursday would pass a permanent law to tackle crimes against women.

“It is our hope that parliament will urgently pass the necessary legislation to enact a comprehensive law in this regard,” he said.

“It is indeed a matter of shame that, notwithstanding the gains we have made, incidents of violence and sexual offences against women are on the increase,” Singh said at a function where the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development 2011 was awarded to Ela Ramesh Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA).

Under the changes approved by the cabinet and the president earlier this month, the minimum sentence for gang-rape, rape of a minor or rape by policemen or another person in authority will be doubled to 20 years from 10 and can be extended to life without parole.

The temporary decree recommended capital punishment for the rapist in case the victim died after an attack or went into a coma.

Under the existing law, a rapist faces a term of seven to 10 years.

The decree, which must be turned into law by parliament in six months, also created a new set of offences such as voyeurism, groping, stalking or indecent gestures.

The vicious assault on the student by six drunken men sparked a chain of events including surging street protests, the decree and installation of special fast-track courts to punish rapists.

Five of the suspects are being tried in one such court in New Delhi on charges of murder, gang-rape and kidnapping. The victim died of horrific injuries in a Singapore hospital where she had been sent for further treatment.

A sixth suspect faces trial in a juvenile court.

Despite calls for stricter punishment, there were more reports of sexual attacks in Delhi.

A 23-year-old married woman was allegedly gang-raped by four people last week, police said yesterday adding all four accused have been arrested.

The incident was reported from west Delhi’s Shahabad Dairy around 6.45pm on February 11.

All the accused were arrested from Haryana’s Sonepat.

In another case, a 60-year-old man was arrested for allegedly raping a four-year-old girl. Police said the man has been arrested.

Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court yesterday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the rape and murder of a mentally deranged woman whose body was earlier exhumed from inside a mental asylum in West Bengal’s Hooghly district.

The body of Gudiya was exhumed from the premises of a residential home for destitute and mentally challenged women on July 11, 2012, amid allegations that she was tortured, raped and killed. She went missing from the home on June 26.