[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

The Bombay High Court today (Monday, June 3) upheld the constitutional validity of the clause in Indian Penal Code providing for life imprisonment or death penalty to repeat rape offenders.

A division bench of Justices BP Dharmadhikari and Revati Mohite Dere dismissed petitions filed by three convicts in the Shakti Mill gangrape case challenging the Constitutional validity of the legal provisions under which they were sentenced to death in 2014. The stringent provision was added by an amendment made by Parliament in 2013, following the Nirbhaya gangrape incident.

The court said, “We are of the opinion that Section 376E (punishment for repeat offenders) of the Indian Penal Code is not ultra vires to the Indian Constitution and hence need not be quashed in the case.”

The law was challenged by the three convicts — Vijay Jadhav, Mohammed Kasim Bengali and Mohammed Salim Ansari — all sentenced to death by a sessions court in 2014 for the gangrape of a city-based photojournalist on August 22, 2013. The same year, the three were also convicted for raping a call centre employee. Both instances of gangrape had taken place in 2013 in the Shakti Mills compound.

Also Read: BJP MLA kicks local woman NCP leader protesting about water supply at his office

The fourth accused, Siraj Khan, was sentenced to life imprisonment and the fifth, a minor, was sent to a correctional facility. On November 21, 2018, the High Court had decided to hear their pleas on January 14, 2019 but the State government was not prepared.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Section 376E says whoever has been previously convicted under Section 376 (punishment for rape) or Section 376A (intercourse by a man with his wife during separation) or Section 376D (gangrape) and is subsequently convicted under either A or D shall be punished with imprisonment for life which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life, or with death.

Also Read: Rajnath Singh leaves for Ladakh with Gen Bipin Rawat

On January 25, 2019 another Division Bench of the HC had pulled up the Maharashtra government for its ‘insensitivity’ in failing to secure an expedited hearing on the confirmation of death sentence awarded in April 2014.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The post Shakti Mill gangrape: Bombay HC upholds death penalty clause for repeat rape offenders appeared first on APN News.