Courts should wrap up rape cases in time equivalent to age of victim: Harsimrat Kaur

Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday condemned the rape and murder of Telangana veterinarian and said that courts should wrap up cases of rape in a time-bound manner and pronounce verdict in as many days as the age of the victim.

"If a six-year-old girl is raped then her case should be shut down within six months if a 26-year-old woman is raped her case should be shut down in 26 months and so on. The cases should be handled in a time-bound manner depending on the age of the girl or woman," she added.

She also said that courts should conduct special sessions with the women lawyers to help them fight women related cases. "They should think out of the box. All women courts should run in a time-bound manner," Badal said.

A woman veterinarian was allegedly gangraped and murdered on November 28 and her body was burnt on the outskirts of Shadnagar in Telangana's Ranga Reddy district. Hyderabad police had a day later arrested four persons in connection with the case.

Condemning the incident, the minister said: "It's very saddening as we as a government couldn't provide justice to our daughters, there are several other reasons as well. Every time such incidents occur and become an issue in the news, but then it becomes business as usual."

"For such incidents, seriousness is needed at each level, including society's level, government's level and even at the level of courts. This seriousness is missing hence the incidents are rising," she added.

The union minister also said she was not in favour of the suggestion by some women MPs that the rape culprits should be publically lynched

"I am not in favour of this because when people are not able to get justice from the law and police, they are taking the law in their hands which is our failure on the part of the system," said Badal.

"Such failure should not be made a norm. The system needs to be fixed and if a police officer is not working properly in such cases then he should be straightaway given the dismissal order," she added.