Speaking on the occasion, B Madhava, District Secretary, CPI (M), said that the Delhi gangrape incident apart, incidents of sexual harassment of women have been taking place with astonishing frequency in our own region, the Sowjanya case and sexual harassment of a woman in nearby Kanyana among several of them. There is a need to change existing laws and bring in tougher punishments for perpetrators of such crimes, he said.
Stating that Central Government has constituted the Justice J S Verma Commission to look into the aspect of laws pertaining to sexual harassment, Mr. Madhava said that the CPI(M) has already appealed to the Commission that life imprisonment be awarded to rapists wherein there would be no room for any concession and reduction of jail term of any sort.
“Cases pertaining to harassment of women must be dealt with in fast track courts and verdicts must be pronounced within a span of three months. Officials who do not accept complaints of rape victims and deny security to them must also be punished”, he said.
Criticising RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat for his remarks on the issue, Mr. Madhava said that tribals and Dalits are being raped frequently in the rural areas but Mr. Bhagwat has turned a blind eye to this reality. “The ones running the state government in Karnataka are disciples of Bhagwat. While one minister sexually harassed his friend's wife, another was in the news for harassing a nurse. The ones who watched porn in the Assembly, are also Bhagwat's disciples”, he said.
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