Making it mandatory, JK CM Mehbooba Mufti will enact law of death penalty for rape of minors

Srinagar, April 13: In a stern and unsparing statement on the Kathua rape and murder case that outraged the entire nation, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Thursday said that she would never let another child suffer like the eight-year-old did and that her government would bring a law making the death penalty mandatory for those who violate minors.

In an attempt to bring the decision into action, Mehbooba Mufti tweeted, “I want to assure the entire nation that I stand committed not just to ensure justice for (the girl) but also seek exemplary punishment for those responsible for a crime whose brutal savagery has shamed humanity.”

Ms Mufti assured people of the state that she stands committed for justice to Asifa, an eight-year-old minor Bakerwal girl, who was allegedly raped and murdered at village Rassana in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district in Jammu region in January this year.

 

Asifa was kidnapped when she was grazing horses near her home on January 10, kept sedated and gang-raped repeatedly for days by a group that included police officers. She was drugged and not given food the entire time. Just before her head was bashed in with a rock, one of the police officers asked the killer to wait so he could rape the child one more time, according to the police charge-sheet submitted in court.

Attempting the decision to sentence death penalty to the criminals over this gruesome act, states like Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Arunachal Pradesh have also come up with this law.

Several politicians and public figures joined the chorus to demand justice for the deceased. All eight accused in the gangrape have been arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police.