Arunachal Pradesh legislative Assembly on Friday passed a landmark bill that paves way for awarding capital punishments to those involved in raping girls under 12-years of age.
Arunachal Pradesh Home Minister Kumar Waii moved the Criminal laws (Arunachal Pradesh) Amendment Bill 2018 in the House today during the ongoing session and it was unanimously passed by a voice vote.
With passing of the Bill, the northeastern state became the fourth state in the country to bring amendments to the Criminal law to provide capital punishment (death penalty) to those convicted of raping girls below 12 years. Other three states who had already made provision to award death penalty to similar crime includes, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana.
The Amendment Bill amended provisions among others, section 354, 354 (B), 354 (D) of IPC which punishes for outraging the modesty of women by providing harsher punishment up to 7 years and 10 years to the existing provisions and fine to the tune of Rupees One lakh.
Waii said that the Amendment Bill made provision that ‘whoever commits rape on a woman up to twelve years of age shall be punished with death, or rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than fourteen years but which may extend to imprisonment for life which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life, and shall also be liable to fine’ under section 377 AA of the Bill.
“After section 376D of the principal Act, the Amendment Bill made provision that where a woman up to twelve years of age, is raped by one or more persons constituting a group or acting in furtherance of a common intention, each of those persons shall be deemed to have committed the offence of rape and shall be punished with death, or rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than twenty years, but which may extend to imprisonment for life which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life, and shall also be liable to fine,” he said adding that the Amendment Bill alsp provided that such fine shall be just and reasonable to meet the medical expenses and rehabilitation of the victim and that the fine imposed under this section shall be paid to the victim.