Kolkata, July 26 -- The Aparajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, passed by the state legislative assembly in September last year seeking the death penalty and other stringent punishments for rape convicts, has been returned by the Centre after review, the Trinamool Congress said on Friday. "The BJP has proved by returning the Bill that it doesn't want death penalty for such offenders," TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said. Governor C V Ananda Bose referred the Bill to President Droupadi Murmu for review on September 6 last year, three days after the assembly unanimously passed the Bill amid a nationwide row over the rape and murder of a junior doctor inside Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. Drafted at the behest of the chief minister, the Bill seeks changes in Sections 64, 65, 66, 70 and 71 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The Bill also proposes amendments to various sections of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. Section 64 of BNS says punishment for rape "shall not be less than 10 years"; section 65 says punishment for raping a minor under 16 shall be rigourous imprisonment "not less than 20 years"; section 66 says punishment for injuring a woman leading to death or persistent vegetative state shall be death or no less than 20 years of rigorous imprisonment; section 70 says punishment for gang rape shall be no less than 20 years of rigorous imprisonment; section 71 says repeat offenders previously convicted under sections 64, 65, 66 or 67 shall be punished with death penalty or imprisonment for rest of natural life. A delegation of TMC Parliament members met the President in February seeking her assent to the Bill. Neither the Raj Bhawan, nor West Bengal assembly speaker Biman Banerjee commented on the issue on Friday....