Owaisi questions 'double standards' on death penalty for rapist

Hyderabad : AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday questioned the "double standards" in awarding death penalty to rapists, especially when it came to communal riots.

Reacting to a Bombay High Court judgment upholding life sentence to 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano case, he said the Modi government should appeal in the Supreme Court seeking death sentence.

The MP said the convicts not only raped Bilkis Bano, who was pregnant, but also murdered her young daughter, sister, mother and 11 other family members.

"I think it's a fit case for awarding death penalty to the rapists," the President of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) told reporters.

Owaisi said while he respected the High Court judgment, he wanted to know why there were "double standards" in giving capital punishment.

Owaisi said he also respected the court order awarding death penalty to Yakub Memon although everyone knew that he had no direct or indirect involvement in the 1993 Mumbai blasts but the court found circumstantial evidence against him.

He recalled that Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat when Bilkis Bano was raped and her family members were killed.

He said since his government did not conduct a proper inquiry, the Supreme Court handed over the case to the CBI.

"I want to know from the Modi government which talks about rights of Muslim women and the need to do justice to them, whether it will ask the CBI to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court judgment so that the convicts get death penalty," he said.