Rajkot, Mar 13: A court in Gujarat's Rajkot district on Monday sentenced to death a man accused of brutally killing a minor girl by stabbing her 34 times for rejecting his proposal.
The court of additional district and sessions judge R R Chaudhary at Jetpur sentenced to death Jayesh Sarvaiya (26) for stabbing a Class 11 student 34 times for refusing to enter into a relationship with him.
The accused had also injured the girl's brother who had tried to intervene during the attack that took place in March 2021.
The court held that this was a "rarest of the rare case" as per the definition given by the Supreme Court in the Nirbhaya case, special public prosecutor Janak Patel said.
Sarvaiya was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
"The court awarded the death sentence and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the accused under section 302 of the IPC... It was a kind of murder that shook the entire community and hence, was taken seriously," Patel said.
The convict has been given a month's time to make an appeal in the high court, he said.
The accused and the victim were residents of Jetalsar village in Jetpur taluka of the district. The man had been harassing the victim, and on March 16, 2021, he went to her house with a proposal.
Angered by her refusal, Sarvaiya thrashed the victim and stabbed her multiple times outside her house when she tried to escape.
Shocked by the brutality of the killing, locals had demanded that the accused be given capital punishment and even observed a bandh and took out a protest march.
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New Delhi (PTI): A Private Member's Bill seeking a clear legal framework for regulation of deepfakes has been introduced in the Lok Sabha.
The Regulation of Deepfake Bill, introduced by Shiv Sena leader Shrikant Shinde in the House on Friday, aims to protect citizens by mandating prior consent from individuals depicted in deepfake content.
"Misuse of deepfakes for harassment, deception and misinformation has escalated, creating an urgent need for regulatory safeguards," Shinde said.
The Bill also lists penalties for offenders creating or disseminating deepfake content with malicious intent.
"With advancements in artificial intelligence and deep learning, deepfake technology has emerged as a significant tool for media manipulation. While the technology has potential applications in education, entertainment and creative fields, it also poses severe risks when misused, threatening individual privacy, national security and public trust," Shinde said in the statement of objects and reasons in the Bill.
The proposed Bill seeks to establish a clear legal framework to govern the creation, distribution and application of deepfakes in India, said Shinde, a three-term Lok Sabha member from Kalyan.
The Bill also seeks to establish the Deepfake Task Force, a dedicated body to combat national security implications and evaluate the influence of deepfakes on privacy, civic participation, and potential election interference.
The task force will collaborate with academic and private sector institutions to develop technologies that detect manipulated content, thereby promoting credibility in digital media.
The Bill also proposes to establish a fund to support public and private sector initiatives in the detection and deterrence of advanced image manipulation.
A Private Member's Bill is a procedure of Parliament that enables lawmakers, who are not ministers, to draw attention to issues that might not be represented in Government Bills or to highlight the issues and gaps in the existing legal framework that require legislative intervention.
