Two senior member of India’s Socialist Party, Abu Azmi and Mulayam Singh Yadav, have caused outrage by suggesting women who are raped or have consensual sex outside of wedlock should be hanged.

Abu Azmi, apparently said he wanted women who were forced to have sex against their will to be put to death at the same time as their attackers.

‘Rape is punishable by hanging in Islam but here, nothing happens to women, only to men. Even the woman is guilty,’ he told NDTV news.

‘Any woman if, whether married or unmarried, goes along with a man, with or without her consent, should be hanged.

‘Both should be hanged. It shouldn’t be allowed even if a woman goes by consent.’



The party’s leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav, also argued men who were convicted of rape should be forgiven as ‘boys will be boys’.

‘Following a girl-boy fight, the girl complains she was raped,’ he added at an election event on Thursday.

He said if he won the election and became prime minister, the law that punishes rape with death would be abolished.

Mr Azmi’s son Farhan has since apologized for the statements his father made, the Independent reported.