The government is considering death penalty to be the most appropriate punishment to curb incidents of rapes as well as to protect women and children from violence and repression and the government is also going for toughest action against rapists.
As per the government move, the Ministry of Law is proposing the death penalty as the highest punishment for rape.
The draft of the proposed amendment to the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act-2000 will be tabled at the next Cabinet meeting on Monday for approval.
Law Minister Anisul Huq said the initiative has been taken as per the directives of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
“We are proposing for raising the highest punishment to death penalty for rape instead of lifetime imprisonment,” Huq said, noting that there will be some minor changes too.
He said that they are proposing the amendments but it is up to the Cabinet to decide.
According to Ain-o-Salish Kendra (ASK), between January and September this year, nearly 1,000 rape cases were reported, including 208 incidents of gang-rapes.
Meanwhile, the government has taken various other steps to ensure speedy trial of rape cases. The Attorney General's Office has decided to prepare a list of rape-related cases pending in the High Court. The list will be prepared in two months. The state will then request the Chief Justice to form a special bench to ensure speedy trial of these cases.
Additional Attorney General SM Munir said, “It is our moral and legal responsibility to bring the perpetrators to justice by ensuring speedy trial of rape offenders. Various organisations and the top level of the government have urged the state to expedite the trial of rape cases. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is also trying to do this. Therefore, it has been decided to prepare a list for speedy trial of rape cases and present it to the Chief Justice and the High Court.”
Due to the slow pace of the trial, the number of pending rape cases and repression on women and children in the courts is rising day by day. In the circumstances, most of the accused are challenging the various processes of the case and seeking bail from the High Court. As many of the accused are influential, they are also harassing the plaintiffs of the cases related to repression on women and children by threatening or settlement with money.
According to the latest figures from the Supreme Court, about 170,000 cases of violence against women are currently pending in the country's courts. Of them, 50,000 rape-related cases are pending in the High Court.
Besides, there are 17,506 cases in the country's juvenile courts. As there is no separate court, these cases are being tried by the Women and Children Tribunal. The average number of cases pending in each tribunal is 1,064. As a result, it has become difficult to ensure speedy trial of this huge number of cases through 101 tribunals.
Nasima Begum, Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, said, "We need to prevent the recurrence of rape at all costs."
