Raj govt plans law to provide death penalty for raping minor

The Vasundhara Raje-led Rajasthan government may soon move a Bill to provide death penalty to those convicted of raping minors on the lines of a legislation passed recently by the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, a senior minister said.
"The government is currently studying the Madhya Pradesh model. The Madhya Pradesh legislation is awaiting the President's nod and we are waiting to know its fate. If it gets the nod, we will introduce a Bill in the Assembly," Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said.
On December 4, the Madhya Pradesh Assembly had unanimously passed 'The Penal Law (Madhya Pradesh Amendment) Bill-2017' to provide for death sentence to those found guilty of raping girls aged 12 or below.

The legislation seeks to introduce section--376 (A)(A)-- in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) under which a person convicted of raping a girl aged 12 years or below may be awarded death penalty, life imprisonment or a minimum imprisonment of 14 years with a fine.
It also seeks to bring in section 376 (D)(A) for gang rape of girls up to the age of 12.
The convict under this section may be awarded capital punishment, life imprisonment or a minimum of 20 years in jail, besides a fine.

Under both the sections, the convict awarded life sentence will have to remain in jail till death.

According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) 2016 report, cases of crime against children have shown a steady rise in Rajasthan.
Rajasthan recorded 4,034 such cases in 2016, which is 3.8 per cent of the crimes against children (98,344) registered across the country. In 2015, the state had registered 3,689 cases of crime against children.
According to the NCRB data, state police registered 728 cases of child rape in 2015, which increased to 858 in 2016.