HC Asks Centre to Frame Laws against Sexual Assault of Deceased People

The Karnataka Excessive Courtroom on Tuesday really helpful the union authorities to amend part 377 (carnal intercourse in opposition to the order of nature) of the Indian Penal Code to incorporate necrophilia as a punishable offence. The advice got here after a division bench of the court docket headed by Justice B Veerappa together with Justice Venkatesh Naik T acquitted a person of rape expenses who’s accused of sexually assaulting a deceased 21-year-old girl.

The HC acknowledged that “rape on a lifeless physique” ought to both be punishable beneath the ambit of part 377 of IPC or a separate provision have to be made to punish the offenders. The court docket additionally quoted the instance of nations like England, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa, the place necrophilia is handled as a punishable offence.

The observations of the court docket had been made whereas listening to an eight-year-old case from Tumakuru, the place a person Rangaraju, alias Vajpayi, allegedly murdered a 21-year-old girl in June 2015 by slitting her throat when she was coming back from her laptop courses. The accused had reportedly raped the physique of the sufferer after murdering her. He was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment with a superb of Rs 50,000 for homicide and ten years in jail with a superb of Rs 25,000 for rape by the Tumakuru district and periods court docket. Rangaraju had appealed in opposition to the decision, stating that there was neither an eyewitness nor any grounds for convicting him beneath part 376, which offers with rape.

The excessive court docket acknowledged that whereas part 377 of IPC speaks about unnatural intercourse, it doesn’t embody the time period “lifeless our bodies”, and therefore, the rape expenses in opposition to Rangaraju had been quashed. Nonetheless, the HC upheld his homicide conviction. The court docket additional dominated that whereas the Act can’t be held as rape or unnatural intercourse beneath sections 375, 376, and 377, it might undoubtedly be termed necrophilia or sadism and really helpful the central authorities to border legal guidelines in opposition to the identical.

The court docket additionally noticed the incidents of rape of deceased folks in hospital mortuaries and really helpful putting in CCTV cameras in authorities and personal mortuaries inside six months to forestall such offences and uphold the dignity of the deceased. It additionally really helpful sustaining cleanliness in mortuaries to protect the our bodies in a dignified method. Sustaining the confidentiality of the deceased and elevating consciousness amongst mortuary workers had been different suggestions that the court docket made.