Architect of India's new anti-rape law dies
INDIA: The architect of India's tough new anti-rape law, former Chief
Justice Jagdish Sharan Verma, has died only a month after the
legislation was approved by parliament, officials said Tuesday.
The 80-year-old Verma died on Monday in a hospital just outside the
capital New Delhi as a result of multiple organ failure, doctors said.
The judge was appointed as the chairman of a special panel last
December with a brief to recommend changes to existing laws on sexual
violence following the deadly gang-rape of a student on a bus in New
Delhi.
The main recommendations, including an increase of the minimum prison
term from seven to 10 years and provisions for the death penalty in the
most extreme cases, were included in a new law approved by parliament in
March.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was among those who paid tribute to
Verma, describing him as a "man of vast understanding".
AFP
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