NEW DELHI: Favouring imprisonment till death for the six accused in the Nirbhaya gang rape, Union minister Krishna Tirath on Monday said that the case was an exceptional one and should be treated as "rarest of rare".
Following hectic consultations last week with over 40 NGOs, social and women's rights activists, the ministry plans to consult with the ministries of home and law to recommend life term without parole till the natural death of all accused, including the juvenile offender.
Speaking on the issue, Tirath, who holds the charge for the ministry of women and child development, said, "I am of the opinion that an exception should be made in this case keeping in view the sheer brutality of the crime. My view is that the accused should be subjected to harshest punishment possible. This could be life imprisonment without parole till the natural death of the accused. The juvenile offender in this case should also be treated as an adult."
Tirath will meet home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and law minister Ashwani Kumar on January 4 to finalize the government's recommendations before they are submitted to the Justice Verma Committee. Incidentally, when a court awards life imprisonment to a convict in a heinous crime, it means the guilty is to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
But given the reformative sentence system operational in India, the state has been vested with the discretion of commuting the sentence if the prisoner exhibits good conduct for a prolonged period erasing any perception of being a threat to society. A prisoner can apply for release from jail on grounds of good conduct after completion of 14 years in prison.
Over the past several years, the discretionary power has been utilized to grant relief to everyone across the board even in cases where a person is sentenced to life after being found guilty of heinous crime.
Delhi gang-rape: Nirbhaya case rarest of rare, Krishna Tirath says
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Delhi gang-rape: Nirbhaya case rarest of rare, Krishna Tirath says
