April 28
INDIA:
Tamil Nadu: 5 get death penalty for Polur hooch tragedy
The District Sessions Court in Tiruvannamalai on Friday awarded death penalty
to 5 persons on the charge of mixing poison in arrack which resulted in the
death of 13 people in Polur on May 23, 2000. According to sources, the convicts
are T Murugan (43), V Kaliappan (41), N Jayapal (51), K Pillaikannu (65) and
his son Udayakumar (41).
Sessions Judge G Magizhendhi awarded death sentence to the accused 5 persons
for mixing poison in arrack under Section (302) of Indian Penal Code(IPC) and
also slapped 7 years rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 5,000 each.
The accused had been engaged in illegal business of selling arrack and had some
issues with another group engaged in the same illegal activity in the same
region.
The convicts, T Murugan, V Kaliappan, N Jayapal, K Pillaikannu and his son
Udayakumar, decided to destroy their rival's business and conspired to lace the
arrack produced by the other group with poison. The arrack which was poisoned
by the 5 accused persons claimed the lives of 13 people including a woman in
Polur on May 23, 2000.
(source: The New Indian Express)
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Centre to make sexual assault of boys under age of 12 punishable by death
penalty----The Union women and child development ministry has finalised the
proposal to amend sections 4, 5 and 6 of the POCSO Act, which will make rape
committed against "any child" below 12 punishable with the death penalty.
Less than a week after the Criminal Law (Amendment) ordinance, 2018 - which
provides for death penalty for those convicted of raping a girl below 12 years
- was promulgated, the Union women and child development (WCD) ministry is set
to move the Cabinet seeking approval for the same punishment for those guilty
of sexually abusing young boys of the same age, 2 senior government officials
familiar with the matter said.
The April 22 ordinance amended Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) that
deals with rape. It also changed Section 42 of the Protection of Children from
Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act, a special legislation enacted in 2012 to address
sexual offences committed against those below 18 years of age, to say that
newly amended IPC section would apply to children below 12 years of age.
But while POCSO is gender-neutral, the amended Section 376 mentions the word
"woman". This meant that those guilty of raping boys below the age of 12 years
old would not be subject to the death penalty provision.
"It resulted in an anomaly where the same crime committed against a girl and a
boy is treated differently. The ordinance that was brought in to punish those
raping girls less than 12 years contradicts the spirit of POCSO, which is
gender-neutral," one of the officials cited above said on condition of
anonymity.
To correct this, the WCD ministry has finalised the proposal to amend sections
4, 5 and 6 of the POCSO Act, which will make rape committed against "any child"
below 12 punishable with the death penalty.
"We are in the process of sending the proposal to all stakeholder ministries
including law for consultation after which we will go to the cabinet," the 2nd
official said.
Sections 4, 5 and 6 deal with aggravated penetrative sexual assault on children
under 18 years, which is currently punishable with up to 10 years in jail,
extendable to life imprisonment, under the POCSO Act.
One of the officials said that the ordinance that was promulgated on April 22
has to be approved by the Parliament within 6 weeks of reassembling, failing
which it will cease to be functional. "By the time the Parliament reconvenes
and the ordinance is approved and made into a law, we will try to get the POCSO
amendments approved by the Cabinet and make them part of the common law," he
added.
Asked why similar punishment for sexual offences committed against minor boys
was not part of the April 22 ordinance, the first official said, ???Ordinances
are temporary laws and are brought in as a response to extraordinary situation
that required immediate intervention. In the present case it came in the
aftermath of the brutal rape of an 8-year-old girl in Kathua district of Jammu
& Kashmir."
But legal experts said the Criminal Law (amendment) ordinance was
"constitutionally unsound" and "legally questionable."
"Article 14 & 16 of the Constitution provides for equality before law. One
cannot differentiate between genders. The ordinance does not reflect equality
of sexes. How can you have different punishment for male and female child when
it comes to heinous crimes," said Anil Malhotra, a family law practitioner.
Malhotra was part of the special investigation team constituted by the Punjab
and Haryana High Court in 2012 to inquire into allegations of rampant sexual
abuse of minors at Apna Ghar, a childrens' home in Rohtak, Haryana.
"In the course of our investigation, we had come across several cases where
minor boys were sexually abused by the accused who ran the children home. The
boys were as traumatised as the girls. Having different punishment based on
gender is legally untenable in such a scenario," Malhotra said.
(source: Hindustan Times)
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