Bilkis Bano Case Convicts: The Supreme Court on Monday (January 8) canceled the remission given to 11 convicts in the case of gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The culprits were released on 15 August 2022 after the Gujarat government granted remission in their sentence. The Supreme Court has ordered that 11 convicts will have to surrender before the jail authorities within two weeks to undergo life imprisonment. The court also termed the Gujarat government’s decision as trite and taken without thinking.
Bilkis Bano has expressed happiness over the decision of the Supreme Court. He even said that a burden like a mountain has been removed from his chest. Now the biggest question is whether even after the Supreme Court’s decision, the culprits of Bilkis Bano case will be saved from going to jail? Let us understand.
Bilkis Bano’s culprits can appeal to Maharashtra government
According to news agency PTI, 11 convicts of Bilkis Bano can appeal to the Maharashtra government for remission of their sentence. The bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said in its 251-page judgment, “The Gujarat government had usurped the powers of Maharashtra, which could only entertain applications seeking remission (in punishment). ”
The Supreme Court in its judgment said that the Government of Gujarat had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications seeking remission of sentence awarded to these convicts and only the Government of that State was competent to entertain such applications where the criminals were convicted. He was tried and sentenced.
The bench said, “…we say this for another reason, if the convicts seek remission of sentence as per law then they have to remain in jail because they cannot seek remission on bail or outside the jail Are.”
The hearing was transferred from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.
Bilkis Bano had expressed fear of tampering with evidence and threat to witnesses, after which Gujarat High Court transferred the hearing of the case from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was raped while fleeing the communal riots that broke out after the train burning incident in Godhra. His three-year-old daughter was one of the seven members of the family killed in the riots.
