Anti-rape ‘Aparajita’ bill passed in India’s West Bengal. The state government has made death penalty as the maximum punishment for rape.
The anti-rape bill brought by the Mamata Banerjee-led government was unanimously passed in the West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday (September 3). Through this, the West Bengal government brought the first amendment in the Central Act related to rape, gang rape and sexual offenses against children. The bill will now go to state Governor CV Anand Bose and then to President Draupadi Murmu.
Terming the ‘Aparajita’ bill as historic and exemplary, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has paid tribute to the 31-year-old woman doctor who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Government Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. On August 9, the female doctor was brutally tortured in the seminar room of the hospital and was murdered.
The bill titled ‘Implicity of Women and Children (West Bengal Criminal Law and Amendment) 2024’ provides for death penalty as the maximum punishment for rape. If a victim dies as a result of a rape or sexual crime, the new law will punish the rapist and sexual assaulter with the death penalty.
The new bill also provides for life imprisonment without parole for those convicted of rape.
Meanwhile, Mamata’s opposition BJP also welcomed the bill.
Earlier, while introducing the bill, Mamata Banerjee requested Leader of the Opposition Subvendu Adhikari to state Governor CV Anand Bose to assent to the bill.
The West Bengal Chief Minister said, ‘Through this bill, we have tried to close the existing loopholes in the central law. Rape is a curse against humanity, social reforms are needed to stop such crimes.’
Mamata also said that the opposition should ask the governor to sign the bill. Then it is our responsibility to implement the bill. We want the CBI to investigate the murder of a Kolkata doctor, hang the culprits to death.
Source: India Today
