—Judicial observations while acquitting those convicted for rape by trial courts
DOES it matter then that Union home minister L.K. Advani has recently promised death penalty for rapists? Does it matter that last week the chief ministers' meet had capital punishment for the crime high up on its agenda? What do these grandiose announcements mean in a country where a woman is raped every 53 minutes, where every seventh minute an act of criminal violence claims a woman victim?
Very little, considering the conviction rate in rape cases stands at a paltry 4 per cent. "Add to that the judicial dicta 'the graver the punishments, lesser the conviction' and you realise these mega-pronouncements are really about...

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