Sushma Swaraj seeks death penalty in child rape cases

New Delhi: Expressing anguish over the brutal rape of a five-year-old girl in Delhi, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj on Saturday demanded capital punishment in child rape cases and those involving brutality and barbarity and said the new anti-rape law be made more stringent. "Nothing short of death sentence in cases of rape of children and cases involving brutality and barbarity will help," Swaraj, who met the victim at the AIIMS, said.

"I went to AIIMS to see the child. Doctors are doing their best. Let us all pray. I think we should hang these criminals and save our children," she wrote on Twitter. Swaraj said the new anti-rape law should include two more provisions for providing death penalty to those who rape children and those who commit heinous and brutal crimes. The BJP leader said these "perverts and sadists" require shock treatment. "We need to make the recent law more stringent," she said.

The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha also asked Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to convene a meeting of representatives of all political parties to provide for death sentence to perpetrators of such brutal crimes. "Home Minister should convene a meeting of representatives of all political parties to provide for death sentence in cases of rape of children and cases involving brutality and barbarity as in the present case," she said, adding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should also be present at the meeting.

The BJP leader felt there was no let up in rape cases after the December 16 gangrape incident that shook the entire nation and said she saw another five-year-old girl, who was also a rape victim, in another room at AIIMS. "I had thought barbarity in Damini case was an aberration. Delhi child rape case has shown that perversity and sadism is common to these criminals," Swaraj said.

"I saw another five-year-old girl in the next room. She is also a rape victim. She was found abandoned in the AIIMS campus. She says her father is a rickshaw puller. She misses her mother but does not want to go home," Swaraj said. She said during her visit to AIIMS, doctors told her that a few days back they discharged a male child who was a victim of sodomy.

The BJP leader said the legal machinery should be made more effective so that such cases should not be dragged for years. "It should not take months to act against the accused," she tweeted. Sushma had on Friday criticised the police action in curbing protests against such crimes and beating up of young girls protesting the rape incident.