Kathua fallout: Convicted to be awarded death for raping children below 12

The Union Cabinet has cleared an ordinance to award death sentence to those convicted of raping children below the age of 12. Read all the updates around the ordinance

 

The Union Cabinet on Saturday approved an ordinance that allows courts to award death penalty to those convicted of raping children below the age of 12. The government's move assumes significance at a time when massive uproar witnessed by the country in the aftermath of the ghastly Kathua rape and murder case.

There had been fervent demands for the award of death penalty to such sexual offenders, including the assaulters of the eight-year-old girl who was gangraped and killed at Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir recently. A similar incident has later reported in Surat, where