CLAIM
In light of the gruesome Hyderabad gang-rape and murder case, a 21-second video of President Ram Nath Kovind is being widely circulated on social media, in which he can be heard saying that the government has decided to give death penalty to rapists and that this decision has sent a strong message across all the states in India.
The message which is in Hindi reads, “#President_of_India #Ram_Nath_Kovind Rape karne wale ku Sarkar ne #Phansi ki saza dena ka faisla kiya hai... (President Ram Nath Kovind says the government has decided to award death penalty to rapists.)”
The aforementioned video has garnered over 1,000 shares on Facebook and has been viewed over 19,000 times. The same video has been shared by multiple other users on Facebook.
TRUE OR FALSE
The video which is doing the rounds is misleading. While the video hasn’t been doctored in any manner, it has been edited to put the president’s statement out of context.
Firstly, it is not a recent statement. It was made on 31 January 2019. Secondly, the video clip is from President Kovind’s address to both the Houses of the Parliament ahead of the last session of the 16th Lok Sabha which commenced on 31 January. Enlisting the work done by the Modi government in its first tenure, Kovind had said that the government made a provision for capital punishment in case of rape of minors.
Kovind can be heard making the same statement at around 17 minutes in the video.
WHAT DID WE FIND OUT
On looking up for relevant news on President Kovind awarding death penalty to rapists, we came across the original ABP video clip which has been edited and is now being circulated.
On hearing the 41-second video we found out that the president was talking about the provision made by the government in case of rape of minors.
Earlier in 2018, Kovind had given his assent to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018 that gives stringent punishment, including death penalty, for those raping girls below the age of 12 years.
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