People's Democracy

AIDWA Demands: No Clemency To Rapist-Murderer

IN a statement issued from New Delhi, June 29, by its general secretary Brinda Karat, the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) has appealed to the president of India not to grant clemency to Dhananjay Chatterji who is facing the death sentence in a case of rape and murder of a minor school girl in Kolkata. The AIDWA holds that this case can be counted as the rarest of rare cases, as enunciated in the earlier Supreme Court judgement on capital punishment.

The AIDWA statement pointed out that, instead of heightening social outrage, the frequency of child rape and subsequent murder of the victims seems to have, on the contrary, deadened public consciousness. This is reflected in the argument that since child rape and murder is not rare, death sentence is not called for.

While making it clear that the AIDWA is against the liberal use of capital punishment, the statement pointed out that, in the case under discussion, the death sentence pronounced on Dhananjay Chatterji is according to the law of the land. (INN)