The government has taken the initiative to remove the provision of negative comments about the character of rape victims from the law. The initiative was welcomed by The Rape Law Reform Coalition (RLRC).
In a press release issued on behalf of the RLRC, the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) said that under Section 155 (4) of the Evidence Act 1872, when a person is criminally charged with 'rape or attempted molestation', it can be shown that Complainant is generally 'slut'. During the anti-rape movement in October last year, one of the demands of RLRC was to remove this clause. RLRC thanked all concerned for accepting the demand.
Earlier, Law Minister Anisul Haque said that the law will be taken up in the next session of the National Parliament by amending the existing Evidence Act including removing Section 155(4). The Law Minister gave this information while responding to the various layoff proposals by the opposition MPs during the process of passing the budget in the Parliament on Wednesday.
