Bengal Assembly’s 2-day special session to pass bill on death punishment for rapists

KOLKATA, SEP 2 (IANS) — A two-day special session of the West Bengal Assembly will commence from Monday in the second half where a Bill will be moved by the treasury bench seeking capital punishment for the convicts in rape and murder cases.

However, there is a high chance of the first day of the session becoming stormy as the opposition BJP is likely to protest over the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital doctor rape-murder case. The doctor’s ghastly death does not feature in the list of “obituary mentions”, a mandatory practice at the beginning of any session.

According to the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, till now they have received information that only the name of the former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who passed away last month, is there in the list of “obituary mentions”.

He said that they will wait and watch and in case the name of the rape victim is not included in the list, the party legislators will protest.

The announcement for the special session of the Assembly to move a Bill seeking capital punishment for the rape and murder convicts was announced by the Chief Minister last month while addressing an event marking the foundation day of Trinamool Congress’ student wing.

The announcement came at a time when her government is facing tremendous criticism from all quarters not just in West Bengal, but also nationally and to an extent globally, over doubts of alleged evidence tampering and the approach of the administration after the ghastly rape and murder.

However, the opposition parties and the legal brains have questioned the justification of the proposed Bill since already there are strong anti-rape laws in the country.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is conducting a parallel probe in both the case of the rape and murder as well as on charges of financial irregularities at R.G Kar. Both probes are court-ordered.

Related: Rallies over medic’s rape-murder in Kolkata, prominent personalities launch night-long sit-in