Life term for torture over dowry
14-year jail for provoking a woman to commit suicide, says draft anti-dowry act
The cabinet yesterday approved in principle the draft of "The Dowry Prohibition Act-2017" incorporating maximum 14 years' rigorous imprisonment and fine for provoking a girl to commit suicide.
As per the draft law, one would face maximum life-term sentence or up to 12 years' imprisonment and fine for seriously hurting a woman over dowry, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told reporters after the cabinet approved the proposed law at its weekly meeting at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
The woman and children affairs ministry had recommended the death penalty for inciting suicide, when the draft was being formulated, but the provision was dropped before it was placed at the cabinet, sources at the ministry said.
If the man and his parents demand dowry, they would have to face minimum one year and maximum five years of jail or up to Tk 50,000 fine or both. Injuring a victim will result in one to three years in jail and financial penalty.
Filing a case on false accusations of demanding dowry would result in sentence to one-year jail or maximum Tk 50,000 fine or both, said the cabinet secretary.
He said the draft law has been framed incorporating the previous Dowry Prohibition Act of 1980 and its amendments made later on.
Mitali Jahan of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA) said there are already such provisions of punishments in the Women and Children Repression Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) about provoking someone to commit suicide or injuring someone.
“So what is so special in this draft law regarding such punishments?” she said.