Anti-Maritime Piracy bill introduced in LS

The Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, which seeks to provide stringent punishment for acts of piracy, was introduced in Lok Sabha on Monday.

Shashi Tharoor (Cong) opposed the bill at the introduction stage saying, the provision of automatic death penalty was against the law.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the bill does not have automatic death penalty provision. He said it is factually incorrect to say that there is an automatic death penalty provision.

The bill states that there is a provision of either life sentence or death, depending on the crime, he said.