Cong condemns Delhi gangrape case, women MPs to meet Shinde

Party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary said that all women MPs will be meeting Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit, Delhi Commissioner of Police and National Commission of Women to raise the issue.

Earlier, she had in the Rajya Sabha urged women members of the House to join hands on the issue and meet Shinde and police officers to ensure speedy action into the case. The lawmakers will be meeting the city police chief tomorrow.

Chowdhary advocated overhauling of the police system and speedy trial to check such crimes.

Amid demands from members of UPA ally DMK as well Opposition BJP and AIADMK for awarding capital punishment to those found guilty of committing rape, party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary said it is better that perpetrators of such crimes be made to live with the same stigma, which a victim suffers.

"It (death penalty) will be a luxury for such a person," she said but added that it was her personal opinion as her party is not thinking about it right now.

Stressing that this incident will not be allowed to remain just one more statistic, Chowdhary said while there is no dearth of laws to deal with such crimes, what is needed is making the judicial system swifter and fast tracking of hearing in these matters.

She said that her party prays that the victim and her friends and family member pull through the "ghastly" incident.

Terming the incident as "unfortunate", Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said "we hope Delhi Police will take note of this incident and act expeditiously".

To a suggestion of setting up fast track courts to expedite such cases and prevent recurrence of such incidents, Tewari said police can act swiftly and effectively withing the prevailing law.