Shatrughan Sinha pays visit to Maliwal on Day 4 of her fast

Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal continued with her indefinite hunger strike for the fourth day today demanding stricter anti-rape laws in the country, and was joined by BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha.

While Maliwal alleged that the Delhi Police forcibly tried to take her away from the protest site, senior police officials claimed that they had advised her to go to a hospital as her condition was deteriorating.

Sinha, a Member of Parliament, is the second BJP leader to join the women panel's protest. On Friday when Maliwal started her indefinite hunger strike, senior BJP leader and former Union minister Yashwant Sinha had joined her at Rajghat.

"I have come here not as a politician but as an aware citizen of the country, an aware artist and as a father of a daughter...in such heinous crimes time bound completion of trial is necessary and toughest punishment, death penalty should be given to the guilty," Sinha said.

Yesterday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had extended his support to Maliwal's demand for setting up more fast-track courts to complete the trial in rape cases of minors within six months and to give death penalty in such cases.

"We advised Swati Maliwal to go to a hospital since her condition was deteriorating but she refused. However, her medical examination is being conducted twice a day," a senior police official said.

The hunger strike by Maliwal comes in the wake of the recent incidents of rape in Kathua and Unnao.

An eight-year-old girl from a nomadic community was raped and killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district in January this year.

In the Unnao case, a 17-year-old girl has alleged she was raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar at his residence on June 4, 2017. Later, she alleged that her father was killed inside jail at the behest of the lawmaker, who has since been arrested by the CBI.