As citizens continue to seeth with anger over the gruesome gangrape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor in the outskirts of Hyderabad, Telangana Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development, KT Rama Rao on Sunday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to amend the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC) so that rapists are given capital punishment without delay and left with no option for review.
The Minister in a series of tweets said that time to 'amend archaic portions of our Acts and Laws' have come. He wrote, "7 years after Nirbhaya’s ghastly rape & murder; the convicts are still not hung! A 9-month child is raped recently, lower court ordered capital punishment; HC revised it to life imprisonment! A young veterinarian is barbarically murdered in Hyderabad. And the perpetrators have been nabbed. But I wonder how we can offer solace to the grieving family seeking justice. Justice delayed is justice denied sir. As the Parliament is in session, I urge you to take up the issue for a day-long discussion on priority." (sic)
He added, "Let us act swiftly to save our nation from these beasts who seem not to fear law of the land @narendramodi Ji, I appeal to you on behalf of millions of citizens who’re aggrieved yet feel helpless and want us lawmakers to raise up to the occasion and deliver expeditious justice."
Protests have been organised in several parts of the country against the horrific gang-rape of the 26-year-old woman, demanding death penalty to the four arrested accused who have been identified as Areef, Shiva, Naveen and Chennakeshavulu.
On Saturday, tension prevailed in Shadnagar after a large number of people had gathered outside Shadnagar police station, raising slogans, ready to break open the jail and lynch the accused. However, police managed to control the crowd using force.
After a day of high drama with a standoff between a large mob of protestors and the police, a magistrate in Telangana's Shadnagar Town sent all four accused in the gruesome gangrape and murder of a woman veterinarian to judicial custody for 14 days.
Meanwhile, three police personnel including a Sub-Inspector was suspended for their insensitivity when the victim's parents approached police to investigate the missing of her daughter. Police allegedly suggested that the victim could have eloped. In TNM's investigation, we found that the road stretch leading to the crime spot had no street lights.