Bilkis Bano Case: 11 Convicts To Surrender Within 2 Weeks | All You Need To Know
New Delhi: In the latest development in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case, 11 convicts who have been roaming free since their remission last year will have to return to prison within two weeks, as directed by the Supreme Court on Monday. The Apex Court canceled the Gujarat government’s remission to the 11 accused, stating that the state government was not competent to decide on remission. The Top Court’s order came after it heard the victim woman’s request to cancel the remission given to the convicts. The court stated that the given request was ‘maintainable’ and could challenge the remission.
“The rule of law must be preserved unmindful of the ripples of the consequences,” the Apex Court stated while announcing the verdict.
Talking about its own judgment in May last year, which was delivered by Justice Ajay Rastogi (retired), allowed the 11 convicts to appeal for their early remission before the state government. it stated that the earlier judgement was based on the facts and material obtained through fraudulent means by those who filed for remission.
The case was later moved to Maharashtra in order to ensure fair proceedings, hence only the Maharashtra government and not the Gujarat government is competent to grant remission, the top court said.
The convicts had not approached the court with clean hands, the apex court observed.
Noting that the state, where an offender is tried and sentenced, is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts, the apex court held that Gujarat was not competent to pass the remission orders but the Maharashtra government.
In March 2002, during the post-Godhra riots, Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter. She was five months pregnant when rioters attacked her family in Vadodara.
The Gujarat government had released the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, on August 15, 2022. All the 11 life-term convicts in the case were released as per the remission policy prevalent in Gujarat at the time of their conviction in 2008.
Bilkis Bano and others had approached the top court, challenging the premature release of 11 convicts.
Some PILs were filed, seeking directions to revoke the remission granted to 11 convicts.
The pleas were filed by the National Federation of Indian Women, whose General Secretary is Annie Raja, 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.
The Gujarat government, in its affidavit, defended the remission granted to convicts, saying they completed 14 years of sentence in prison and their “behaviour was found to be good”.
The State government had said it has considered the cases of all 11 convicts as per the policy of 1992 and remission was granted on August 10, 2022, and central government also approved the release of convicts.
(With ANI Inputs)