Titled ‘Radical Change in Rape Laws’, the petition stresses that rape be considered as a crime on par with murder and demands that life imprisonment should be the minimum punishment while death penalty be made the maximum penalty for rapists.

“While rape is viewed as a heinous crime, the law gives only 10 years as a maximum penalty to an accused. In our petition, we have stressed that death penalty as a punishment for rape will serve as a deterrent to such crimes. The same should be directly given to rapists of minors or disabled persons. Like in the US, there should be a system for registration of habitual sexual offenders which would be accessible to public,” said Zubin Driver, the founder of Fight Back.

The arguments in the petition were fine-tuned by the former Attorney General of India Soli Sorabjee and the online petition has been signed by about 600 people. Incidentally, the petition also focuses on other rare aspects of rape — women raping men and same sex rape — and demands same punishments for accused in these cases as well.

The initiative has found supporters in rape victims as well. A Hindi film director whose daughter was recently abducted and allegedly raped has also voiced support for the initiative. “Though the petition has been filed, we still want the support of as many citizens as possible. We intend to approach the Law Minister and the members of Parliament to ensure a logical conclusion to the petition,” said Driver.

In numbers
According to the Mumbai Police, 29 cases of rape of women were registered and 26 were detected during January 1 to June 18 in 2009. For the same period, 56 cases of rape of minors were registered and 53 of them detected.