MADURAI: Highlighting their demand for capital punishment, members of different volunteer groups and non-governmental organisations came together to form a human chain inside Gandhi Museum here on Sunday.
S. Umar Sherif, who runs Maalick Foundation that coordinated the event, said that though they had been highlighting this demand through various social media platforms already, they decided to come together in the backdrop of the recent sexual assault and murder of a seven-year-old girl in Chennai.
“The murder which really shocked everyone in the society gave us an urgency to organize this immediately,” Mr. Umar said.
P. Ranjith of Tamil Nadu Sallikattu Youth Wing Committee, said that the he and other like-minded men and women who took part in the event strongly felt that capital punishment could be an effective deterrence.
Mr. Umar claimed that the present provisions of Indian Penal Code allowed a maximum of seven years of jail to someone for committing rape.
“Out judicial process also takes a lot of time and in many cases the accused escapes without imprisonment,” he added.
On the campaign by various organizations towards abolishment of capital punishment and many developed countries doing away with it, Mr. Umar said that certain grievous crimes did require capital punishment to instil fear among perpetrators.
He added that the organisations that participated in the campaign on Sunday are planning to organise a similar event on a larger scale in Chennai with the same demand.
