Shoot, hang rapist in public even if he is party man: Assam BJP MP

A Bharatiya Janata Party MP has joined the chorus for death sentence to rapists “even if he is one of ours” as more cases of sexual assault were reported across Assam and Meghalaya.

“The guilty should be publicly hanged or shot dead. There should be no leniency with rapists, juvenile or adult. Even if the guilty is found to be a BJP member, he should be executed publicly,” R.P. Sharma, Lok Sabha member representing Tezpur parliamentary constituency, said on Thursday.

Mr. Sharma, a lawyer by profession, has often embarrassed the BJP with his outspokenness. In October last year, he had accused some ministers of denting the party image by taking bribes and 10% commission for various work.

The MP’s outburst followed the arrest of a 60-year-old man in Meghalaya’s North Garo Hills district for raping his seven-year-old granddaughter. The accused, Deny Marak of Kharkutta area, had reportedly committed the crime on April 10 and used threats to silence the child.

On Wednesday, the police in western Assam’s Dhubri town arrested one Nurjamal Haque for sexually assaulting a teenage girl while she was alone in a house where works as a maid.

In the last 24 hours, the police in Guwahati arrested two men for sexually exploiting girls through blackmailing. Cases had been registered against the two in the city’s Chandmari Police Station.

While one of the accused, Anjan Kalita, had been blackmailing a girl in the city’s Gandhibasti area, the other – a security guard named Rabindra Phukan – had been exploiting a resident of an apartment in Chenikuthi area.