Srinagar
Amid worldwide grief and anger over the gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, there is a move to change the law for sexual crimes against children to bring in the death penalty for child rape. Union Minister Maneka Gandhi declared it in a video message in which she said she was “deeply, deeply” disturbed by the Kathua rape case.
Maneka Gandhi said her Women and Child Development Ministry would move a cabinet note on Monday to amend POCSO, the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act.
“I have been deep, deeply disturbed by the rape case in Kathua and all the recent rape cases that have happened on children. I and the ministry intend to bring an amendment to the POCSO Act asking for the death penalty for rape on children below 12 years,” said Maneka Gandhi in a video posted on YouTube.
On January 17, the body of a minor girl was found in the forests near Rasana, Hiranagar. The girl had been missing for a week. According to police, she had been abducted and raped by an SPO Deepak Khajuria, who was a part of the team sent out to find her when she was missing.
Nine accused, including the alleged mastermind Sanji Ram – an ex-bureaucrat – and his son Vishal Kumar, a police head constable, two SPOs and a sub-inspector of police, have been arrested in the case.
But grisly details of the crime and the horror inflicted on the child described in a police charge sheet submitted in court have dramatically shifted the narrative, three months on.
Yesterday, union minister VK Singh became the first central voice from the ruling BJP to call for justice for the murdered girl. Later, Congress president Rahul Gandhi also tweeted and held a midnight march.
Celebrities, sportsmen and thousands of others have expressed anguish at the crime and called for toughest action.
