Indian State Chief Under Fire For Saying Death Penalty for Rapists Triggered Rise in Murders

India's Rajasthan state chief Ashok Gehlot claimed last week that ever since capital punishment was introduced for rapists, there has been a rise in murder-after-rape cases by criminals to prevent victims from testifying against them in courts.

Political parties and women's organizations in India have slammed a senior Congress politician and Rajasthan state chief over his recent remark on the death penalty for rapists.

"Crime cases are increasing in the country, whether it is communal or otherwise," Ashok Gehlot said, adding, "Since the death penalty was introduced for those accused after Nirbhaya [2012 Delhi gang rape case]... a lot of girls are being murdered. I can see this in reports coming from across the country, and this is a very dangerous trend."

Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal said that Gehlot needs to stop making such useless remarks and should rather implement stringent laws in his state against rapists.

"Gehlot should stop using the language of rapists… We struggled a lot to bring the law that rapists of small children be hanged," Maliwal told reporters on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Gehlot's officer on special duty (OSD), Shashikant Sharma, said the state chief's comment had been "distorted" by the "BJP IT cell."

"Data backs up this unfortunate trend," Sharma said in a tweet in Hindi, tagging a report by India's Express daily. According to the report, National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data says: "there was a 31 percent spurt in cases of rape with murder in 2018 as compared to 2017."

Calling Gehlot's comments "shameful and unfortunate," a legislator from the BJP's Rajasthan unit said that "the statement reflected the failure of the Congress-led Rajasthan government in controlling incidents of rape in the state."

A legislator from the Aam Aadmi Party's Rajasthan unit, Vinay Mishra, also said that such remarks would encourage rapists.