Govt clears proposal, data on rapists to go online

In a bid to prevent sexual offenders from hiding their identity which sometimes helps them in repeating the crime, the government is set to display their names, photographs and addresses on police websites. Nagendar Sharma reports. On the cards

In a bid to prevent sexual offenders from hiding their identity which sometimes helps them in repeating the crime, the government is set to display their names, photographs and addresses on police websites.

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The home ministry proposal for the preparation of a database of rape convicts across the country, following the brutal gangrape in the capital in December, has been cleared by the law ministry.

The government is now also armed with the recommendation on this subject from the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs, which submitted its report on anti-rape laws on Friday.

"The committee has been given to understand that in our country, there is no system of keeping a watch on repeat sex offenders…..We recommend a suitable mechanism to keep a watch on them and after the conviction on first offence, names of convicts should be publicised to inform the public," states the report of the panel, headed by senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu.

The parliamentary panel pointed out that: "Western European countries and the United States have developed a mechanism for tracking habitual and repeat sex offenders and in some places, they are even identified by tags on their bodies."

Responding to the panel's report, a senior government official said the two ministries are working to give a final shape to the policy. "The parliamentary committee's report will help the government in speeding up the project."

The legal arm of the government has stated "there is no legal or constitutional bar in going ahead with the policy for preparation of such a database by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)."

The government is likely to initiate the preparation of such a database first in Delhi and it plans to upload the names, photographs and addresses of rape convicts on the websites of Delhi Police and NCRB.

"The move would act as a deterrent and should prevent offenders from repeating the crime. The plan would subsequently cover all states and UTs," states the proposal.