'Gap Between Your Words And Deeds': Rahul Gandhi Attacks PM Modi Over Bilkis Bano Convicts Release

Taking to Twitter, Rahul Gandhi wrote, “Those who raped a 5-month pregnant woman and killed her 3-year-old girl were released during the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav'.”

Rahul Gandi attacks PM Modi over release of convicts of Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

Source : PTI File Photo

New Delhi: Senior Congress Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday trained his guns against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over release of convicts in Bilkis Bano gangrape case during Gujarat riots 2002 saying that the “country is seeing difference between his words and actions.” He asked what message is being sent out to the women of this country through such decisions. 

Taking to Twitter, the Wayanad MP without naming Bilkis Bano wrote, “Those who raped a 5-month pregnant woman and killed her 3-year-old girl were released during the 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav'.”

Referring to PM Modi’s Independence Day speech where he stressed on the issue of women empowerment, the senior Congress leader said, “What is the message being sent out to the women of the country from those who are talking about women empowerment?”

“Prime Minister, the whole country is seeing the difference between your words and deeds,” he added. 

5 महीने की गर्भवती महिला से बलात्कार और उनकी 3 साल की बच्ची की हत्या करने वालों को 'आज़ादी के अमृत महोत्सव' के दौरान रिहा किया गया।

नारी शक्ति की झूठी बातें करने वाले देश की महिलाओं को क्या संदेश दे रहे हैं?

प्रधानमंत्री जी, पूरा देश आपकी कथनी और करनी में अंतर देख रहा है।

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 17, 2022

On Tuesday, the Congress party had cornered the PM Modi-led Central Government over the issue. 

Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera asked if the Prime Minister's statements on women empowerment had any meaning and asserted that he should tell the country if he himself believed in his words when he spoke about the safety, respect and empowerment of women.

"Who is the real Narendra Modi? The one who serves falsehood from the ramparts of the Red Fort or the one who gets his Gujarat government to release those behind rape. This Congress party and the country want to know," Khera asked during the presser.

All the eleven convicts who were sentenced life imprisonment in the gangrape case of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during 2002 Gujarat riots walked out of Gujarat’s Godhara sub-jail on Monday as per Gujarat government’s remission policy. 

The 11 convicts — Jaswantbhai Nai, Govindbhai Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radhesham Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt, and Ramesh Chandana — were released from jail on Monday.

Bilkis Bano's family members were attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village in Limkheda taluka of the Dahod district during the post-Godhra riots on March 3, 2002.

Bilkis Bano, who was five months pregnant at that time, was gang-raped and seven members of her family were killed. The accused were arrested in 2004.