The minimum punishment in case of rape of women has been increased from rigorous imprisonment of seven years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday gave his assent to an Ordinance permitting death penalty for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years.

The Union Cabinet had on Saturday approved the Ordinance to allow courts to award death penalty for such crimes.

The Ordinance provides for death sentence, imprisonment for life or a minimum sentence of 20 years for the rape of a child below 12 years.

The sentence for the rape of a girl below 16 would be a minimum of 20 years but extendible to life imprisonment, while that for gang- rape of a girl below 16 would be imprisonment for life.

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The Ordinance also provides that investigation of all cases of rape shall be completed within two months.

The deadline for the completion of trial in all rape cases will be two months, the officials said.

A six-month time limit for the disposal of appeals in rape cases has also been prescribed.

Economic offenders

The President also gave his assent to the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance to allow the government to confiscate properties and assets of loan defaulters who flee the country.

The provisions of the ordinance will apply to economic offenders who refuse to return, persons against whom an arrest warrant has been issued for a scheduled offence and wilful bank loan defaulters with outstanding of over ₹100 crore.