System needed to punish rape accused within six months of conviction: Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said a system needs to be developed to ensure that rape convicts are punished within six months. Reacting to the verdict in 2013 'Gudiya' rape case, Kejriwal said it took seven years to find the accused guilty.

"Both accused in the gudiya rape case were found guilty. It took seven years. We need to all together correct this system. If we want to ensure that no one misbehaves with our sisters and daughters we need to develop a system which ensures that accused are punished within six months," he said in a tweet. Two men accused of kidnapping and brutally raping a five-year-old girl in Delhi in 2013 were held guilty on Saturday by a city court.

Gudiya is a fictitious name to refer a five-year-old girl, who had been raped and brutalized by offenders in April 2013, barely four months after a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern 'Nirbhaya', was raped and brutalized on December 16, 2012, in a running bus in South Delhi's Munirka area. Nirbhaya had succumbed to her injuries in Singapore hospital where she had been shifted by an air ambulance for specialized treatment.

All four surviving convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case have been ordered to be hanged till death on February 1. They were earlier ordered to be hanged on January 22, but the execution had been stayed by the Delhi High Court, pending disposal of the mercy petition to the president by one of them. After the disposal of the mercy petition, a Delhi court issued a fresh death warrant for their execution at 6 am on February 1.