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'Encounter or hanging': Abhishek Banerjee demands new law after Kolkata rape-murder
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar accused Banerjee of trying to deflect attention from the state's failure to ensure women's safety in hospitals.
Senior Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday called for a new bill in Parliament to expedite the trial and conviction of rapists and said sexual offenders deserve either death by hanging or encounter by law enforcement agencies. Reacting to the horrific rape and murder of a doctor in a Kolkata government hospital, he demanded that the trial and conviction should be completed within seven days in sexual assault cases.
Banerjee's comments came soon after an administrative meeting at Amtala in his Diamond Harbour constituency in West Bengal.
Talking to the media, the Trinamool Congress leader slammed the BJP for protesting on the streets against the murder of the postgraduate trainee doctor in a state-run hospital in Kolkata, urging them to press the Centre to pass a bill for swift justice instead.
He said the Trinamool Congress would support such a bill should the Centre table it in the Parliament.
He said by fixing the time duration of the trial, taxpayers' money would be saved.
"These rapists, who don't deserve to live in the society, should be dealt with either through encounter or by hanging," Banerjee asserted.
Acknowledging the failure of political parties to prevent heinous crimes against women in cases like Hathras, Unnao, Manipur, the Nirbhaya case in Delhi, and incidents in West Bengal, Banerjee called for reforms in the justice system.
BJP attacks TMC
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar accused Banerjee of trying to deflect attention from the state's failure to ensure women's safety in hospitals.
Last week, a post-graduate medical student, who was on night duty in the hospital, was murdered in the seminar hall. According to his colleagues, the woman doctor had eaten her dinner with two colleagues before going to the seminar hall for rest after 2 am. She was found dead the next morning in a semi-naked state.
The initial autopsy has confirmed she was sexually assaulted before being murdered. Blood was flowing out of her mouth and private parts, per the post-mortem report. Her neck was also found to be broken.
The authorities have arrested a person in connection with the crime.
With inputs from PTI
