Hang rapists, murderers publicly in stadium: Lobo

A Goa BJP minister on Saturday created a stir after he demanded that rapists who commit murder should be hung publicly in a stadium, to ensure that it serves as a deterrent to others and prevents them from committing similar heinous crimes.

Goa’s Ports Minister Michael Lobo has also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to amend existing laws in Parliament to make public hangings mandatory for people committing the “rarest of the rare” crimes.

When asked to react to the controversial encounter of four persons accused of rape in Telangana on Friday, Lobo told reporters: “This crime does not have place in our society or even in jail. Amendment needs to be done in Indian Penal Code by Parliament to see that such type of crimes, a fast track court should set up and within a period of four months the justice should come”.

Saying that the crime which the four accused in Telangana committed, was not an “ordinary crime”, Lobo claimed that their act of raping and burning their victim, a veterinarian, was a crime which was beyond human imagination and added that the punishment needed to be similarly exemplary.

“Public hangings were the norm during British rule in some parts of India and abroad too. Such offenders who commit rape with murder, should be publicly hung. Once found guilty, these accused should be hung in a stadium,” Lobo also said, adding that public hangings would send a “strong message” to people all over India.

“It is a message to those type of people who think that the law will not do anything to them,” he said.

Calling for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to bring about the necessary amendments to the Indian Penal Code to facilitate public hangings.

“The Prime Minister and Home Minister, who is very very strong, have to take cognisance and propose amendments to the act and see that the particular amendment goes through and capital punishment should be made compulsory for rape and murder and that too publicly,” Lobo said.

“Because people of India are fed up of this, people of India cannot take it anymore that this type of cases, rarest of the rare case or even a rape. A person should be very, very scared, he should have fear in the mind that the law is very strong and law will not allow me to live in this world,” he added.