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Advani proposes capital punishment for rape

Union Home Minister Lal Kishinchand Advani yesterday said the Centre, in consultation with the state governments, will amend the country's criminal laws to punish rapists with death.

Addressing a press conference in Bilaspur, Madhya Pradesh, Advani said the approval of the state governments is necessary as the subject figures on the concurrent list in the Constitution.

Referring to the recent rape of three nuns in the tribal Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh, Advani said no words were adequate to condemn the heinous crime.

He pointed out that the present laws are inadequate to deal with rapists. Whereas there is a legal provision to award the death sentence to a murderer, the maximum punishment for rape is seven years in prison.

Advani said the decline in moral values in society was evident from two recent instances in which a 90-year-old woman and a four-year-old girl were raped.

UNI

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