Delhi polls: BJP's Krishna Tirath takes hardline on prosecuting juveniles accused of rape

NEW DELHI: Krishna Tirath, who recently switched to BJP from Congress, has also tailored her views on prosecuting juveniles accused of rape to suit her new party. As Women and Child Development Minister, she had opposed lowering the age to prosecute rapists who have not attained adulthood. She has now advocated stringent punishment for juveniles found guilty of rape.

Tirath had ruled out harsher punishment for juveniles in the aftermath of the December 16 rape case. The UPA government did not lower the trial age to 16 years in the Juvenile Justice Act because of strong reservations expressed by Tirath and her ministry .

"We are not in favour of lowering the age bar for juveniles under the Juvenile Justice Act... We are signatories to the international convention on child rights, based on which we had raised the juvenile age bar from 16 to 18 years. We can't go back on that now," Tirath said in 2013.

However, when ET asked Tirath her views on Thursday , she said " Modi government has done a lot for women empowerment. We will talk about this and the amendments cleared by Cabinet. There should be harsh punishment for heinous crimes," for juveniles. When reminded that she had taken a different line when she was in Congress, Tirath ended the conversation abruptly and said, "I will talk to you later."