Bilkis Bano kin hail SC verdict, Cong slams BJP

Gandhinagar : Relatives of Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped and whose family members were killed during the post-Godhra riots, burst firecrackers on Monday after the Supreme Court quashed the state government’s decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the 2002 case, while the Congress slammed the BJP regime over the relief provided to the culprits.

A witness in the Bilkis Bano case, who is also her uncle, hailed the apex court verdict quashing the Gujarat government’s  decision to grant remission to the 11 convicts in the gang-rape-cum-murder case — who were serving a life sentence — leading to their premature release from a jail on August 15, 2022.

“I am one of the witnesses in the case. These 11 convicts were handed the punishment by a Maharashtra court (the trail took place in Mumbai). The Gujarat government’s decision to release them was wrong. That is why we challenged it in court.

“I am happy the SC has quashed the Gujarat government’s decision and asked the convicts to surrender. I feel we have received justice today,” the witness and Bano’s uncle Abdul Razaq Mansuri, currently living in Devgadh Baria town in Dahod district, told reporters.

Some distant relatives of Bano are settled in Devgadh Baria. As the news of the Supreme Court’s verdict flashed on television screens, some of them burst firecrackers to welcome the decision.

Earlier in the day, the apex court quashed the remission granted to the 11 men convicted of gang-raping Bilkis Bano and murdering seven of her family members during the 2002 riots and ordered that they be sent back to jail within two weeks.

In Ahmedabad, the opposition Congress claimed the Gujarat BJP government’s approach was to save the criminals rather than ensuring justice for the victim.

Reacting to the SC judgement, Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said the state’s BJP government does not appear to follow the law and the Constitution.

“It appears to work to save the culprits rather than get justice for victims, and this is very well proved by the Supreme Court’s judgement,” he claimed.

This is not the only instance, there have been many such cases where the government has shielded those who commit a crime rather than protect the victims, he further said.

“People should ensure the government runs as per the law. The government has failed to ensure justice for the victim of such a heinous crime,” Doshi maintained.

Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in February 2002. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.

Human rights lawyer Anand Yagnik said the Gujarat government’s decision (to grant remission to the convicts) was not in conformity with the law and it appeared to have been taken under certain “social, religious and political pressure”.

With the Supreme Court’s judgment, the rule of law has prevailed, he said.

Yagnik, a senior HC lawyer, said, “In the first place, the rules which are applicable for remission do not allow the government to remit sentence to those convicts who are responsible for rape, murder and other such heinous crimes.” The apex court has come to the conclusion that the state government or the Centre do not have the right to remit the sentence of those involved in heinous crimes, he said.

“Even if it was up to the Maharashtra government (since a Mumbai court had convicted the 11 men), it cannot grant remission…The judgment shows that the rule of law is maintained,” Yagnik said.

In its verdict, the SC noted the Gujarat government’s remission order was “stereotyped” and passed without application of mind.

The SC said the Gujarat government was not the appropriate government to pass the remission order.

It clarified that the state, where an offender is tried and sentenced (in this case Maharashtra), is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts.