Kasauli killing: Son behind bars, mother picks up pieces of her life from debris

Kasauli killing: Narayani Devi, whose son is accused of killing a woman officer leading a demolition drive against illegal construction, began her day early today, digging deep into the rubble of the guesthouse named after her to try and salvage what she could.

A day after her son Vijay Singh Thakur was arrested on charges of killing assistant town planner Shail Bala Sharma, the owner of the Narayani Guest House, a part of which is being demolished, was stoic, her face giving away little as officials and police kept hawk-eyed vigil on the site that has become the cynosure of national attention.

The court ordered demolition work of two of the four floors of the guesthouse, on the busy Dharampur-Kasauli road, is being carried out by different civil agencies of the Himachal Pradesh government under the careful watch of the Himachal Pradesh police, including commandos.

The slender elderly woman, dressed in a salwar kameez and wearing slippers, rifled through the debris of plywood, brick and mortar, picking up pieces of her life as it were, stopping occasionally to tell those engaged in bringing down the floors to be careful.

Child rapists: 76% people want death penalty for perpetrators, says Survey

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A day after President Ram Nath Kovind gave his nod to an ordinance on the death penalty for rapists who attack children, a citizen survey shows that 76 per cent of the people agree with it.

According to the survey conducted by LocalCircles, 18 per cent voted for life imprisonment without parole for convicted rapists while three per cent said it should be a seven-year jail term (which is the current law).

To catch the citizens' pulse on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, LocalCircles conducted six nation-wide polls which received more than 40,000 votes.

In the second poll, 89 per cent agreed that they want their states to pass a law that awards death penalty within six months. Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh have also passed a law that awards death penalty for child rape.

In another poll, which was about engaging more women officers to register cases of sexual assault, it was found that 78 per cent citizens were in support of every district level police station to have at least one woman officer.