Fact Check: No law to hang all rapists, viral posts are false
Social media users are claiming that President Ram Nath Kovind has announced that the government has enacted a law to hang all the rapists.
By Tejal Sinha Published on 22 April 2022 5:32 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Social media users are claiming that President Ram Nath Kovind has announced that the government has enacted a law to hang all the rapists.
In the video, President Ram Nath Kovind can purportedly be heard saying that the government has made a provision for capital punishment for heinous crimes like rape.
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Fact Check
The claim is False.
NewsMeter found that the video of President Ramnath Kovind has been viral on Facebook since 2019.
We then performed a keyword search. We could not find any recent authentic report that confirms that the provision of capital punishment has been made for all rapists in India. On the contrary, we found some reports of 2018, that state that the President has given assent to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill.
According to a report published on NDTV's website on 22 April 2018, following this approval, the minimum punishment for raping women has been increased from 7 years to 10 years. Apart from this, a provision has been made for the death penalty for the rape of girls below the age of 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 seven years to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment, extendable to life imprisonment. In the 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 the rest of life, which means jail term till the convict's natural life," reads the report.
On further investigation, we also found similar reports published by The Hindustan Times, News 18, and The Indian Express in April 2018 on President Kovind signing an ordinance seeking the death penalty for child rapists.
We found a detailed description of The Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 on the website of 'PRS Legislative Research'.
We lastly found some information on a website 'Devgan' related to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 376AB. "Whoever, commits rape on a woman under twelve years of age shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than twenty years, but which may extend to imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person's natural life, and with fine or with death; Provided that such fine shall be just and reasonable to meet the medical expenses and rehabilitation of the victim, Provided further that any fine imposed under this section shall be paid to the victim, Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018," reads the description.
Hence, it is therefore evident that the claim is False. No such ordinance has been passed to hang all the rapists. According to law, there is a provision for the death penalty only in the rarest of the rare cases of rape.
