Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita highlights include death for lynching among others
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New Delhi: The Modi administration’s proposed criminal code Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita seeks to do away with the colonial-era criminal laws, reports say.
Presenting the bill in Lok Sabha, Home minister Amit Shah said the ambit of death penalty will be extended to crimes such as mob lynching and rape of minors, according to NDTV.
The most important of all highlights is replacing of sedition with offence of ‘endangering unity’.
The twenty new offences added to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita include organised crime, terrorist acts, hit-and-run, and mob lynching.
The criminal code will also deal with sexual exploitation of a woman by deceitful means, snatching, abetment outside India, acts endangering the sovereignty, integrity, and unity of India, and publication of false or fake news.
The law seeks to protect women and children alongside deterring those who harm the state and punishing murderers.
Defining the wider ambit for a terror activity, the provision includes causing damage or destruction in a foreign country, intended for the defence of India.
This is contrary to the previous provision that focused on damage to government, public, or private facilities within India.
Alongside, the terror provision will cover activities such as detention, kidnapping, or abduction of a person to force the government to do or abstain from doing any activity, according to NDTV.
Where the existing sedition law hands out a penalty of up to three in prison or life imprisonment, the new one will increase the maximum penalty to seven years.