West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed the new anti-rape bill.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee introduced the bill following the outrage over the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a medical college in Kolkata. Mamata’s government and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) have come under criticism for not acting proactively in the matter.
The new bill, formally dubbed the ‘Aparajita Woman and Child Bill (West Bengal Criminal Laws and Amendment) Bill 2024’, will now be sent to Governor CV Ananda Bose and then to President Droupadi Murmu for their assents.
The bill imposes death penalty for rape and sexual offences if the act leads to victim’s death or leaves her in a vegetative state, according to India Today.
The report further said the bill seeks life sentence without parole for rape convicts.
Tabling the bill, Mamata said the bill was a “historic” and would serve as a “model”.
“Through this bill, we have tried to plug the loopholes that exist in the central legislation. Rape is a curse against humanity, social reforms are required to stop such crimes,” said Mamata, as per India Today.
Mamata further said, “The opposition should ask the governor to sign the bill, it is our responsibility to enact it after that. We want justice from CBI, death by hanging of the guilty. Crime rates against women in states like UP, Gujarat are abnormally high. While tortured women in West Bengal are getting justice in court. West Bengal was not consulted before passing BNS, we wanted discussions on it after the new government formation.”
Even as the West Bengal assembly passed the unanimously, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had proposed amendments to the bill but those were not passed.
Last month, a trainee doctor was found dead at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata. It was suspected that she was raped and then murdered inside the medical college. Following the allegations of a botched probe and a cover-up, the Calcutta High Court transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is currently probing the case.
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