Be Ready With Remission Files…: SC to Centre, Gujarat on Bilkis Bano’s Plea Against Release of Convicts

The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Centre, Gujarat government and others on a plea filed by Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped and seven members of her family were killed during the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

Bano has challenged the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the case who were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15 last year.

After issuing a notice to the Centre, the Gujarat government and the convicts, the top court posted the matter for hearing on April 18.

A bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna said there is a gamut of issues involved and it needs to hear the matter in detail and also directed the Gujarat government to be ready with the relevant files granting remission to the parties on the next date of the hearing.

During the hearing, the bench observed that it would not be overwhelmed by emotions in the case and would only go by the law.

On January 4, a bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi took up the petition filed by Bano and other pleas. However, Justice Trivedi recused from hearing the case without citing any reason.

Bano had moved the apex court on November 30 last year challenging the “premature” release of 11 lifers by the state government, saying it has “shaken the conscience of society”.

Besides the plea challenging the release of the convicts, the gang-rape survivor had also filed a separate petition seeking a review of the apex court’s May 13, 2022, order on a plea by a convict. The review plea was later dismissed in December last year.

Meanwhile, one of the convicts in the case was seen sharing a stage with Dahod BJP MP Jasvantsinh Bhabhor and his brother Sailesh Bhabhor, who is an MLA from Limkheda constituency on Sunday. As images of convict Shailesh Chimanlal Bhatt on stage surfaced, they drew a sharp response from opposition leaders and others.

TMC’s Mahua Moitra wrote on Twitter, “Bilkis Bano’s Rapist Shares Stage With Gujarat’s BJP MP, MLA.

“I want to see these monsters back in jail & the key thrown away. And I want this satanic government that applauds this travesty of justice voted out. I want India to reclaim her moral compass,” she said.

NCP spokesperson Clyde Crasto said, “Convict in the Bilkis Bano rape case is seen sharing the stage with BJP Gujarat MP and MLA at a government function in Dahod.”

“CM of Gujarat Bhupendra Patel ji, BJP President J P Nadda ji and BJP, do you endorse this ? India surely needs to know,” he said.

Bano, in her pending writ petition, has said the state government passed a “mechanical order” completely ignoring the requirement of law as laid down by the Supreme Court.

“The en-masse premature release of the convicts in the much talked about case of Bilkis Bano has shaken the conscience of the society and resulted in a number of agitations across the country,” she has said.

“The present writ petition challenging the decision of the state/central government granting remission to all the 11 convicts and releasing them prematurely in one of the most gruesome crimes of extreme inhuman violence and brutality,” it said.

The plea, which gave minute details of the crime, said Bano and her grown-up daughters were “shell-shocked with this sudden development”.

“When the nation was celebrating its 76th Independence Day, all the convicts were released prematurely and were garlanded and felicitated in full public glare and sweets were circulated,” it said.

Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.

The investigation in the case was handed over to the CBI and the trial was transferred to a Maharashtra court by the Supreme Court.

A special CBI court in Mumbai had on January 21, 2008 sentenced the 11 to life imprisonment on charges of gang-rape of Bano and murder of seven members of her family.

Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court.

The 11 men convicted in the case walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15, last year, after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy.