Bilkis Bano Case: Supreme Court To Hear Petition Challenging Release Of 11 Convicts Today

The plea challenging release of the 11 convicts was filed before the apex court by CPI-M member Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, and professor and social activist Roop Rekha Verma. 

All the 11 convicts in the gangrape case of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during 2002 Gujarat riots were released on August 15.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court will today hear the plea challenging release of 11 life convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case during the 2002 Gujarat Riots who walked out of the jail on August 15 this year after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy, reported Live Law. The convicts who were lodged in Godhara sub-jail had completed more than 15 years in prison. 

A bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana agreed to hear the matter after advocate Aparna Bhat mentioned the matter seeking an urgent listing on Wednesday. 

Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal also mentioned the matter and said, “The Supreme Court gave a discretion to the government to consider it. We are challenging the remission, not the order of the Supreme Court".

Lok Sabha MP from Trinamool Congress (TMC), Mahua Moitra also moved the Supreme Court against the early release of all 11 convicts in the gangrape case of Bilkis Bano and murder of her several family members. 

The plea challenging release of the 11 convicts was filed before the apex court by member of Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M) Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, and professor and social activist Roop Rekha Verma. 

The plea sought setting aside an order granting remission to 11 convicts and directing their immediate re-arrest. "It is submitted that it would appear that the constitution of members of the competent authority of the Gujarat government also bore allegiance to a political party, and also were sitting MLAs. As such, it would appear that the competent authority was not an authority that was entirely independent, and one that could independently apply its mind to the facts at hand," the plea stated.

All the three petitioners in their plea said that they have challenged the order of the competent authority of the Gujarat government by way of which 11 persons who were accused of heinous offences committed in Gujarat were allowed to walk free on August 15, 2022, pursuant to remission being extended to them. 

"The 11 persons were sentenced to life imprisonment for commission of the offences of, inter alia, gang-rape and murder of multiple people during the large-scale communal riots in Gujarat in 2002 on January 18, 2008 passed by the Sessions Court in Greater Mumbai and the conviction was upheld by way of Judgment dated May 4, 2017 passed by High Court of Mumbai," the petition stated. 

The petition said the case which led to the conviction of the 11 convicts was investigated by the CBI, accordingly, grant of remission solely by the Gujarat government without any consultation with the Central government is impermissible in terms of the mandate of Section 435 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. 

The remission in this heinous case would be entirely against public interest and would shock the collective public conscience, as also be entirely against the interests of the victim (whose family has publicly made statements worrying for her safety). "It is submitted that on such facts (facts of the case), no right thinking authority applying any test under any extant policy would consider it fit to grant remission to persons who are found to have been involved in the commission of such gruesome acts," said the plea.

The 11 convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment by a special CBI court in Mumbai on January 21, 2008 on charges of gang rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano's family. Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the violence that broke out after the Godhra train burning. Among those killed was her three-year-old daughter.

(With inputs from ANI and PTI)