Aiming to create a “safer environment for women and children” in the state by amending and introducing provisions related to rape and sexual offences, the West Bengal government’s newly drafted anti-rape Bill proposes capital punishment rape convicts if their actions result in victims’ death or send them into a vegetative state.
The Bill, titled ‘Aparajita Woman and Child Bill (West Bengal Criminal Laws and Amendment) Bill 2024’, will be tabled in the Assembly Tuesday. The government has called a two-day special session starting Monday in the wake of the rape-murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital last month.
The draft states that other convicts of rape and gangrape would receive a life sentence lasting for the “rest of their natural lives”.
The draft Bill proposes to amend provisions of the newly passed Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, “in their application to the state of West Bengal to enhance punishment and to constitute the framework for…expeditious investigation and trial of the heinous act of violence against women and children.”
Proposing significant changes to the investigation and prosecution process, the Bill stipulates that probes into rape cases must be completed within 21 days of the initial report, a reduction from the previous two-month deadline. The Bill states, “If it is not possible to complete the investigation within the period of 21 days from the date of information recorded by the officer-in-charge of the police station, then the said period can be further extended not exceeding 15 days by any police officer not below the rank of superintendent of police or equivalent, after recording the reasons in writing in the case diary maintained under Section 192 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.”
The amendments also propose to establish fast-track courts for such cases. “To expedite investigations and ensure swift justice for victims, this Bill proposes dedicated special courts and investigation teams. These specialised units will be equipped with the necessary resources and expertise to handle cases of rape of women and sexcual offences against children efficiently, effectively and timely, thereby minimising the trauma experienced by victims and their families,” the draft Bill states.
The Bill says an “Aparajita Task Force” will be constituted to investigate cases of rape or atrocities on women and children. It says the task force shall be formed at the district level and be headed by a deputy superintendent of police for the investigation of these offences.
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