I n response to Mr. Pramod Das’s article “Stricter rape laws needed to stop rape menace”(January 6)

If Dhananjoy Chatterjee, a poor "uneducated" caretaker hailing from a rural humble background, could be hanged to death for allegedly raping and murdering a middle-class "educated" girl of Kolkata; why would the others, accused of the same crime, be awarded lighter punishment? Capital punishment should be the only punishment reserved for the rapists, even if their victims do not get murdered or succumb to injuries. Lighter sentence is not enough to deter the monsters from engaging in such dastardly acts. Unless the potential rapists are made to understand in clear terms that they cannot get away scot free and maximum punishment will wait for them, they would not think twice before committing heinous acts.

Kolkatans who "boldly" smoke in public spaces do not dare to light up in the underground Metro Railway network because they know that they cannot escape the clutches of law there. Taxi drivers who do not use seat belt in the suburbs of Kolkata sport it as soon as their vehicle enters the city proper. While the auto drivers "boldly" carry five to six passengers while plying outside Kolkata; they do not take more than four within the territories of the city. These examples are proof enough that thorough vigilance and tough laws imbibe fear in the minds of the people and force the individuals to change their characters and actions for the better.

Kajal Chatterjee

D-2/403 Peerless Nagar

Kolkata - 114

Murder and rape after ‘drinking’ pardoned for death-sentence?

It refers to justified anguish of family of victims where a Division Bench of Supreme Court reversed judgments of both the High Court and the Session Court when the Apex Court commuted death-sentence of the convict having murdered an old lady and raping her pregnant daughter-in-law on the ground that the convict was not in perfect mental-condition because of his being drunk at the time of crime!

Criminals like murderers and rapists are usually drunk, and the logic taken by Supreme Court can make death-penalty irrelevant because anyone who goes to murder a person can consume liquor before committing the crime to avoid death-penalty. Death-sentence being presently demanded for rapists will be totally meaningless because most such crimes are committed under influence of liquor. Time has come when death-sentence may be commuted only in most exceptional cases rather than awarded in rarest of cases as is ssdone at present, thus leaving a very little scope for courts to decline death-sentence for heinous crimes like murder and rape. Due weight should be given to sentiments of victims and their family-members before commuting death-sentence. Rather their consent should be a necessary compulsion in deciding mercy-petitions.

Madhu Agrawal

1775 Kucha Lattushah

Dariba DELHI 110006 (India)