Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said rapists were a “burden on the earth” and do not deserve to live, PTI reported. He was reacting to the arrest of a 20-year-old man on Wednesday for allegedly abducting, sexually assaulting and attempting to kill an eight-year-old girl in the state’s Mandsaur district.

“In cases of rape, we have made a provision for trial in the fast-track courts,” the chief minister told reporters at his residence in Bhopal. “We will request the High Court and the Supreme Court to make a similar provision so that culprits in such crimes get capital punishment at the earliest.”

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The state Assembly passed a law in December that awards death penalty, life imprisonment or a minimum 14-year jail term to those convicted of raping children aged 12 years or below. The law also awards strict punishment for stalking, disrobing or sex on the pretext of marriage. In April, President Ram Nath Kovind signed an ordinance passed by the Centre that also awards the death penalty to people convicted of raping girls younger than 12 years.

Chouhan said the Mandsaur incident had pained him. “We are with the [complainant’s] family and are keeping an eye on the girl’s condition,” he added. “Her condition is improving and I am in constant touch with the doctors.”

The police tracked the accused – Irfan alias Bhaiyyu Mev – using footage retrieved from a closed circuit television camera located between the girl’s school and the spot where she was found on Wednesday, a day after she went missing from her school in Mandsaur city’s Hafiz Colony locality.

The National Crime Records Bureau’s last report, released on November 30, revealed that Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of rape cases in 2016. Of the total 38,947 cases of rape reported in the country that year, Madhya Pradesh alone accounted for 4,882 cases.