Indian state passes bill to award death penalty for rape of girls aged 12 or younger...

The Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Monday, December 4, passed a bill that would let courts award death penalty to anyone found guilty of raping a girl aged 12 or even younger.

The bill — called the Dand Vidhi (Madhya Pradesh Sanshodhan) Vidheyak, 2017 — will now be sent to the Central government and the President for approval.

Once it gets their nods, it will become the law in the BJP-ruled state. And the nods may not be all that difficult to come by, because the Central government is run by the BJP-led NDA, and President Ram Nath Kovind was also the BJP candidate to the post.

If the bill indeed becomes a law, it would mean extremely strict punishment for people found guilty of raping girls aged 12 or younger.

The bill proposes a minimum of 14 years of rigorous imprisonment for any person found guilty of raping a girl aged 12 or less. The maximum punishment is death. Full story...

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