Saying that the existing norms were inadequate to bring to book rapists, they have demanded a change in the law, aimed at eliminating the possibility of acquittal on grounds of delay in registering the case.

This is significant in the wake of recent announcement of Union Home Minister L K Advani that rapists should be given capital punishment.

During a meeting of social organisations held yesterday, suggestions ranging from a social boycott of Pandit Sapkale to preventing his entry into the town were made.

Vasanti Dighe, who was in the forefront of the Jagaruk Mahila Kruti Samiti formed after the sex scam broke out in 1994, told The Indian Express that rape cases were not promptly registered because of the social stigma attached to the victim. She also pointed out that it was impossible for victims to produce eyewitnesses.

She saidthat the present law was inadequate in dealing with such cases and it was next to impossible to prove a rape case.

In the Jalgaon scandal, things were complicated further by the fact that parents of the victims were not willing to come forward to file a First Information Report (FIR), she said.

The case was also weakened by the fact that the names of the victims had to be kept secret. She said that almost all of the 27 victims who had registered cases against Sapkale and his accomplices had migrated to other places and most of them had got married and settled down in life.

She said that some parents had turned hostile after the filing of the cases from fear that the lives of their daughters would be ruined.

Another leader of the action committee, Yadutai Bhaleras, observed that the prosecution had been weakened by the police with connivance with the accused.

She claimed that Pandit Sapkale and his accomplices were "scarecrows propped up by the real culprits."

She said that the son of anindustrialist was the main culprit, but he did not figure anywhere on police records. Bhaleras demanded that the whole case be re-investigated.