Bengal anti-rape bill sent back, says TMC

THE CENTRE WROTE THAT PUNISHMENTS PROPOSED FOR SOME OF THE CRIMES CLASHED WITH EXISTING PROVISIONS IN THE BNS

- Tanmay Chatterjee

The Aparajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, passed by the state legislative assembly in September last year seeking the death penalty and other stringent punishments for rape convicts, has been returned by the Centre after review, the Trinamool Congress said on Friday.

“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is the driving force behind the Bill. While she wants stringent punishment for people involved in atrocities on women, the Bharatiya Janata Party has proved by returning the Bill that it doesn’t want death penalty for such offenders,” TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said.

Governor C V Ananda Bose referred the Bill to President Droupadi Murmu for review on September 6 last year, three days after the assembly unanimously passed the Bill amid a nationwide row over the rape and murder of a junior doctor inside Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.