Gang rape case: Delhi not safe for women of any age, feel MPs

NEW DELHI: Delhi is not safe for women of any age -- infants, kids or elderly.

This was the refrain of women members in the Rajya Sabha today while expressing indignation over Sunday night's incident when a 23-year-old girl was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a moving bus.

The members, in chorus, vociferously demanded capital punishment and filing of murder charges against perpetrators of such heinous crime.

Cinestar-turned-MP Jaya Bachchan broke down, saying she was "terribly disturbed" and "shocked".

Bachchan, who has been wanting to speak on women's safety issue for last few days, was on her feet to raise the gang-rape issue as soon as the House met for the day.

She kept standing for a long time demanding suspension of Question Hour to take up the issue of safety of women. "I am deeply disturbed," she said.

After the Question Hour, she was allowed by Deputy Chairman P J Kurien to speak after intervention of Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley and another BJP member Avinash Khanna.

"I am very ashamed that I am sitting in this House," Bachchan said and sought to know from Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde whether the government was sensitive enough to have expressed its sympathy to the family of the girl who has been left with a scar for life.

Shinde was present in the House. An act of sexual assault should be treated on par with murder and section 307 of IPC be amended to include rape under it, she demanded.

Maya Singh (BJP) termed the incident as the "ultimate brutality" and said it showed that law is in the hands of goons in Delhi as the hapless girl was gangraped for 90 minutes in a moving bus not in any forest area but posh localities like Vasant Vihar in South Delhi