Bilkis Bano Knocks Supreme Court Against Release of 11 Convicts in Gangrape Case

New Delhi: Bilkis Bano has filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Wednesday challenging the premature release of 11 convicts who had gang-raped her and murdered her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots. These convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case. 

Bano filed a review petition against the May order of the top court which permitted the Gujarat government to apply the 1992 Remission Policy. The review petition said Maharashtra not Gujarat should decide on releasing the men. The released men were given a rousing welcome in their hometown and the images of rapists being garlanded sparked massive national outrage. 

The Gujarat government had released 11 convicts on August 15, Independence Day under the remission policy prevalent in the state at the time of their conviction in 2008. The remission was granted on August 10, 2022 and the Central government also approved the premature release of life-term convicts.

During post-Godhra riots in March 2002, a five-month pregnant Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter in Vadodara.

Earlier, the Gujarat government had submitted an affidavit in the apex court in response to the please filed by Member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, social activist and professor Roop Rekha Verma and TMC MP Mahua Moitra against the release of convicts. 

The affidavit stated, “State government considered all the opinions and decided to release 11 prisoners since they have completed 14 years and above in prisons and their behaviour was found to be good.”

“The government of India conveyed its approval under section 435 of the CrPC for the premature release of 11 prisoners on July 11, 2022,” it added. 

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(With agency inputs)