Bilkis Bano rules out seeking death penalty for convicts, says 'wanted justice, not revenge'

NEW DELHJI: Bilkis Bano on Monday ruled out seeking the death penalty for those who had gang-raped her and killed 14 of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat pogrom, saying her 15-year fight was for justice and not revenge. After the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentences of all the four convicts in the December 2012 Delhi bus gang-rape-cum-murder, several media reports had said that Bilkis too wanted death for her rapists. Asked whether she would move the apex court seeking capital punishment for them, her stock reply was: "I want justice, not revenge." Bilkis was addressing a news conference with husband Yakoob, lawyer Vijay Hiremath and civil rights activists four days after Bombay High Court had upheld the life terms of 12 of the convicts in her case. The court also set aside the acquittal of five policemen and two doctors, whom it held guilty of tampering with the evidence, but rejected the CBI's plea for death sentences for three of the life convicts. "Yes, the horrors I suffered deserve the maximum punishment, but at the same time I do not want anyone else to die in my name," Bilkis said. She added that her priority was to move on with her life after her family had spent the last 15 years looking over their shoulder. Bilkis had been gang-raped while trying to escape a mob along with her family. A 19-year-old then, she was five months pregnant. The 14 members of her family killed that night included her two-year-old daughter and mother. Hiremath lauded Bilkis's courage in battling on for justice. "She showed the rest of us the way to fight. This judgment gives us hope that in these times, the judiciary may be with us." One aspect of the high court judgment they might appeal against is the length of the jail terms awarded to the police officers who doctored the evidence: three years as opposed to the maximum 10 years that the law allows. Asked whether the Gujarat government had ever reached out to the family, the answer was it had not. Rather, rights activist Kavita Srivastava said, the government of then chief minister Narendra Modi and his then home minister Amit Shah had facilitated parole for many of the convicts. This, and the constant threats Bilkis and her family received, had forced the couple to move 25 times in 15 years. For Bilkis and Yakoob, who in contrast to his wife was emotional and broke down once just recalling her struggle, the biggest fear is the possibility of the guilty getting parole again. "Frequent parole threatens our existence," Yakoob said when asked if they wanted any further court intervention to secure their lives. Hiremath put a stop to reporters' attempts to draw parallels between Bilkis's 15-year struggle for justice and the speed with which the December 2012 case was wrapped up in five years. "Delay in any case cannot be justified and she has said, 'We want justice'. We don't want to compare," Hiremath said.