Death Penalty to Child Rapists, President nod to Ordinance 

New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday, 22^nd April 2018 promulgated an ordinance to pave way for providing stringent punishment, including death penalty, for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years.

The Union Cabinet  on Saturday, 21^st April 2018 approved the ordinance to allow courts to award death penalty to those convicted of raping girls under 12 years.
New fast-track courts will be set up to deal with such cases and special forensic kits for rape cases will be given to all police stations and hospitals in the long term, according to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2018.
It stipulates stringent punishment for perpetrators of rape, particularly of girls below 16 and 12 years. Death sentence has been provided for rapists of girls under 12 years, officials said quoting the ordinance.
The minimum punishment in case of rape of women has been increased from rigorous imprisonment of seven years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment, they said.
In case of rape of a girl under 16 years, the minimum punishment has been increased from 10 years to 20 years, extendable to imprisonment for rest of life, which means jail term till the convict’s “natural life".
The punishment for gangrape of a girl below 16 years will invariably be imprisonment for the rest of life of the convict, the officials said.
Stringent punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years has been provided with the minimum jail term being 20 years which may go up to life in prison or death sentence, they said.
The Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Evidence Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act will now stand amended.
The measure also provides for speedy investigation and trial. The time limit for investigation of all cases of rape has been prescribed, which has to be mandatorily completed within two months.
The deadline for the completion of trial in all rape cases will be two months, the officials said. A six-month time limit for the disposal of appeals in rape cases has also been prescribed.

Death Penalty to Child Rapists, Cabinet approves  Ordinance

New Delhi:  The Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, 21^st April 2018, has approved an ordinance for death penalty to those convicted of raping minors below 12 years of age.

The Union Cabinet has approved an ordinance for death penalty to those convicted of raping minors below 12 years of age. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) 2012 would be part of this amendment.

Against the backdrop of outrage over the incidents of rape of minors in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao and Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua, the government plans to bring the ordinance to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

According to the proposal, those convicted of committing rape on children up to 12 years can also be awarded death penalty. As the POCSO law stands today, the maximum punishment for "aggravated assault" is life in jail. The minimum sentence prescribed is seven years in jail.

As the meeting concludes, Cabinet Ministers including Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Uma Bharti, Piyush Goyal,  Smriti Irani, Harshvardhan, Ravi Shankar Prasad, JP Nadda were seen leaving the 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. The emergency cabinet meeting was called in the backdrop of outrage over the incidents of rape of minors in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao and Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua.

Shame 4-Month-Old Baby Raped & Killed

Shame 4-Month-Old Baby Raped & Killed

Indore: There seems to be no end to India’s rape shame, with each case more chilling that the other and leading to a louder chorus for tougher action.

The latest case has been reported from Madhya Pradesh’s Indore where a four-month-old infant was raped and killed allegedly by a 21-year-old man in Rajwada area.

The shocker came to light on Friday, 20^th April 2018, after the blood-soaked body of the baby was recovered from the basement of a building, following which the infant was taken to state-run MY Hospital. The girl bore injury marks on her private parts and head, News 18 reported.

A report in Times of India said policemen who conducted preliminary examination of the infant’s body and the crime were “nearly moved to tears”.

The report added that Sub-Inspector Trolik Singh Varkade of Sarafa police station was suspended for “failing to inform seniors of the heinous crime in his area”.

Sources told News18 on Saturday that the postmortem confirmed rape.

A CCTV footage shows the accused, said to be a relative of the family, carrying the girl on his shoulder at around 4.45 am on Friday.

"The body of the infant was recovered from the basement of a commercial building in Rajwada area. The accused had kidnapped her early on Friday morning when she was asleep with her parents outside the Rajwada Fort. The accused was sleeping close to the family," said HC Mishra, deputy inspector-general of police, Indore.

The accused and the infant's parents knew each other and were in the business of selling balloons, Mishra said.

"The CCTV images show that he took the girl to the basement of the building, some 50 metres away from where the family was sleeping, and her body was recovered in the afternoon," the police officer said.

"The infant had an injury on her head. The accused probably threw her on the ground," Mishra said.

Taking to Twitter after the shocking crime came to light, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he was “shaken to the core”.

आज मन बहुत व्यथित है, इंदौर की घटना ने आत्मा को झकझोर दिया है। इतनी छोटी बच्ची के साथ ऐसा घिनौना कृत्य। समाज को अपने अंदर झांकने की ज़रूरत है। प्रशासन ने त्वरित कार्रवाई करते हुए आरोपी को गिरफ़्तार किया है। हम सुनिश्चित करेंगे कि उसे जल्द से जल्द कड़ी से कड़ी सज़ा मिले।

— ShivrajSingh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) April 21, 2018

Senior Congress leader and former CM Digvijaya Singh tweeted that it was the "height of barbarity".

इंदौर मप्र में ८ महीने की बच्ची के साथ बलात्कार और हत्या। हैवानियत की भी हद है। समाज और देश कहॉं जा रहा है ? अपराधी को कड़ी से कड़ी सज़ा मिलनी चाहिए।

— digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) April 21, 2018

Supreme Court Website Hacked

Supreme Court Website Hacked

New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India’s website was hacked on Thursday, 19^th April 2018, and a Brazilian hack team was suspected to be behind the attack.

The website, supremecourtofindia.nic.in, displayed an image that resembled a ‘leaf’ and said ‘hackeado por HighTech Brazil HacTeam’ on top. The website is currently down.

The Supreme Court website was taken down shortly after the cyber attack.

The hack comes just days after the Ministry of Defence website was hacked. Several reports had then claimed that the website was hacked by Chinese hackers as it showed a Chinese character which translates to ‘Zen’.

Following this, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had tweeted that "Action is initiated after the hacking of MoD website (http://mod.nic.in). The website shall be restored shortly. Needless to say, every possible step required to prevent any such eventuality in the future will be taken."

The Home Ministry website was also hacked earlier this year.