The Kolkata doctor rape and murder case has triggered nationwide protests led by medics, demanding justice for the victim's family and protection for the medical fraternity.
Additional district and sessions judge (POCSO), Hathras court, Pratibha Saxena, termed it as an act which "shakes a person's soul". She found the man guilty and pronounced him to be "hanged till death".
Social activists and women's groups have protested and demanded firm action against four men accused of gangraping a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras in Uttar Pradesh.
A 28-year old man was sentenced to death on Monday by a court in Indore in Madhya Pradesh for kidnapping, raping and killing a minor girl in December last year.
A POCSO court in Angul on Friday awarded death penalty to a 20-year-old man for rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl when she was going to give food to her father, who was working in a farm.
The Union Cabinet Wednesday approved amendments in the POCSO Act, which deals with crime against children, and included death penalty for sexual assault on minors, officials said.
Under an amendment to section 376 (e) of the IPC, repeat offenders in rape cases faced life imprisonment or a death penalty. The amendment was made after the gangrape of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi in 2012.
Under the new law, committing rape on a woman under sixteen years of age has been made punishable with rigorous imprisonment for twenty years and may extend to a life sentence, which shall mean the remainder of that person’s natural life.
The Union Cabinet, two days ago, cleared the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2018, which proposes stringent punishments, ranging from a minimum of 20 years to life term or death, for rape of girls under the age of 12 years.
The Union Cabinet on Friday approved an ordinance to allow courts to award the death penalty to those convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age.The President of India gave his go ahead to the same on Sunday.
New fast-track courts will be set up to deal with such cases and special forensic kits for rape cases will be given to all police stations and hospitals in the long term, according to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2018.
The minister was commenting on the public outrage over Kathua incident, where an eight-year-old was raped and killed, and Unnao case, where a minor was allegedly abducted and raped by a BJP MLA last year.
"It is good if the government has passed the ordinance to award death penalty to rape convicts of children below the age of 12 years. We are hopeful of getting justice," the girl's father said.
The Union Cabinet on Saturday approved ordinance to award death penalty to those convicted of raping children up to 12 years of age.
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