Under Section 70(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, where a woman under eighteen years of age is…

Section 70(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (consolidating and expanding former Sections 376DA and 376DB IPC, which had applied to girls under sixteen and under twelve respectively) provides that where a woman under eighteen years of age is raped by one or more persons constituting a group or acting in furtherance of a common intention, each of those persons shall be deemed to have committed the offence of rape and shall be punished with imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person's natural life, and with fine, or with death. By contrast, Section 70(1) BNS deals with gang rape generally and prescribes rigorous imprisonment for not less than twenty years up to natural life and fine.