• Proposes sentence till death
• Ups life sentence to 25 years

Kathmandu, February 14

The Legislation Committee of the Parliament today defined six crimes as heinous in the proposed National Penal Code and agreed in principle to have a provision in the NPC to slap life sentences until death for grave offences.

The parliamentary panel also agreed to extend the period of life sentences from 20 years to 25 years.

According to the panel, the six heinous crimes are: gruesome murder, murder after rape, murder after taking someone hostage, genocide, committing a murder after hijacking a plane and causing death by poisoning water, according to lawmaker Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, a member of the Legislation Committee.

If endorsed by the Parliament, it will be the first time that the penal code will have a provision to sentence perpetrators of heinous crimes till they die, according to Madhab Paudel, chairman of Nepal Law Commission.

Initially, the government had proposed to have 30 years for life sentence.

Pokharel said though it’s an international practice to have 30 years for life sentence, committee members decided to have 25-year life sentence, keeping in view life expectancy and conditions of prisons in Nepal.

In an effort to bring social malpractice of Chaupadi under judicial purview, the House panel agreed to have a provision in the penal code to sentence those who insist on keeping women in Chaupadi to up to three years in jail or a fine up to Rs 30,000 or both, in case the woman subjected to such ill-treatment dies.

Aiming to curb match-fixing in sports, the House panel proposed to have a provision in the penal code to treat it as crime against the state. The panel also proposed to include environment pollution as a serious crime in NPC.

It also agreed on jail sentence for misusing or capturing public properties, such as temples and Guthi land.  As per the right to privacy provisioned in the constitution, the panel agreed on a new provision to punish those who take photographs without consent and post them on social websites.

The panel also agreed to make polygamy illegal and proposed to invalidate the second marriage.