Sushma seeks tougher law, death sentence in rape of children

Expressing anguish over the rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj has demanded that the new anti-rape law be made more stringent and provide for death penalty in cases of rape of children and those involving brutality and barbarity.

"Nothing short of death sentence in cases of rape of children and cases involving brutality and barbarity will help," Swaraj said.

The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha also asked Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to convene a meeting of representatives of all political parties to provide for death sentence to perpetrators of such brutal crimes.

"Home Minister should convene a meeting of representatives of all political parties to provide for death sentence in cases of rape of children and cases involving brutality and barbarity as in the present case," she said, adding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should also be present at that meeting.

Swaraj said the new anti-rape law should include two more provisions for providing death penalty to those who rape children and those who commit heinous and brutal crimes.

The BJP leader said these "perverts and sadists" require shock treatment. "We need to make the recent law more stringent," she said. The BJP leader felt there was no let up in rape cases after the December rape incident that shook the national capital.
"I had thought that barbarity in Damini case was an aberration. Delhi child rape case has shown that perversity and sadism is common to these criminals," Swaraj said on Twitter.

She also said that the legal machinery should be made more effective so that such cases should not be dragged for years."It should not take months to act against the accused," she said.

She had yesterday criticised the police action in curbing protests against such crimes and beating up of young girls protesting the rape incident.