Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday has hailed the Central Ordinance paving the way for death penalty in cases of rape of minor children as a revolutionary and necessary step to check the increasing number of such incidents across the country.
He said it would act as a deterrent to the heinous crime, which had shaken the nation to the core in recent months. “Such criminals are a blot on the face of humanity and deserve no mercy”, he said, adding that he was all for such exemplary punishment in cases of rape of minors.
While any incident of rape or sexual molestation was unacceptable in the Indian society, which has traditionally worshipped girls and women as goddesses, the rape of minor children violates the basic tenets of humanity, said Capt Amarinder Singh.
No sane society can tolerate such a situation, where rape of minors, including babies less than a year old, was being reported every other day, said the Chief Minister. The perversity which allows a man to commit the kind of atrocities that Kathua’s Asifa was subjected to, deserves the harshest punishment, he added.
There can be no justification, no excuse, to protect a man who can take advantage of the vulnerabilities of a child under 12, who is not even aware of her own sexuality, the Chief Minister said.