Bhopal, March 8 Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Saturday expressed anguish over crime against girl children, warning that the state government has made a provision to award death sentence to those found guilty of raping girls below 12 years of age.
Addressing an event on 'International Women's Day' in Bhopal, Chief Minister Yadav said crime against women, especially against innocent girls won't be tolerated.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also cautioned that capital punishment will be awarded to those found involved in forceful religious conversion in Madhya Pradesh.
"I want to make it clear that the government won't tolerate heinous crimes against innocent girl children and forceful religious conversion. Such people don't deserve to live in the human society. Madhya Pradesh government has a provision for the death sentence," Yadav added.
Notably, Madhya Pradesh Assembly in 2017 passed ‘Dand Vidhi (Madhya Pradesh Sanshodhan) Vidheyak’ to give harsh punishment to those found guilty of raping girls below 12-year age. The state government has been mulling action to get rid of the infamous tag of being the ‘rape capital’ of India.
As per a recent report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Madhya Pradesh is the state with the maximum number of rape cases in the country. The opposition Congress often targets the ruling BJP government over rising crime against women, especially girl children.
State Congress President Jitu Patwari referring to NCRB data said that more than 65,000 rapes have been reported in the State since 2004. The BJP has been in power in Madhya Pradesh since 2003, barring the 15-month period from December 2018 to March 2020 when Kamal Nath led a Congress government.
Responding to Chief Minister Yadav's statement on forceful religious conversion, Congress MLA from Bhopal, Arif Masood said that he would welcome it if the government takes this initiative. "Several cases related to religious conversions are pending in Bhopal. The government should start giving the death penalty to them, and then we will take the Chief Minister's statement seriously," Congress MLA said talking to IANS.
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