Indian Government Officially Approves the Death Penalty For Pedophiles

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The Indian government has approved the death penalty for pedophiles who rape children below 12 years of age in the ordinance to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO). pedophile 

The new act is to tackle the epidemic of pedophilia and gang rape in India.

Punishment for the rape of girls under 12 years will amount to minimum 20 years of imprisonment, life imprisonment or the death penalty according to The Economic Times.

In the cases of rape below 12 years, the punishment will be the death penalty.

SputnikNews reports: Minimum prison terms have been also extended for rape of women and girls under 16 years old — from rigorous imprisonment of seven years to 10 years and from 10 years to 20 years respectively.

The ordinance was adopted after a resonant case involving the abduction and rape of a girl aged 8 in Kathua in January.

A total of eight people are being accused, including two police officers. According to investigators, they kidnapped the girl from a nomadic Muslim tribe, pumping her with strong drugs.

Before the victim was killed, she was kept in one of the Hindu temples of the city.

In 2016 it had 4,900 of practically 39,000 reported rapes in India. Nearly half of the victims were minors.

Capital punishment is a legal charge in India however has only been carried out five times given that 1995. It is done by hanging by the neck up until death.

In November 2012, India voted against a UN General Assembly draft resolution to end capital punishment around the world.

Which crimes are punishable by death in India?

Being a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit a capital offence

Waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India

Abetting a mutiny in the armed forces (if a mutiny occurs as a result), engaging in mutiny

Giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to procure a conviction of a capital offence

Murder

Abetting the suicide of a minor

Aiding or abetting an act of Sati (burning a widow alive with her dead husband)

Kidnapping, in the course of which the victim was held for ransom or other coercive purposes.

Drug trafficking in cases of repeat offences

Banditry with murder – in cases where a group of five or more individuals commit banditry and one of them commits murder in the course of that crime, all members of the group are liable for the death penalty.

Rape if the perpetrator inflicts injuries that result in the victim's death or incapacitation in a persistent vegetative state, or is a repeat offender.

In Gujarat only – Manufacture and sale of poisoned alcohol which results in death