Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao and MLC K Kavitha have launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after one of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case shared the stage with a BJP MP in Dahod, Gujarat, during an event.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha took to Twitter and expressed her outrage. "Bilkis Bano rapist openly shares stage with BJP's MPs and MLAs. What have we become as a community that perpetrators of heinous crimes against women are being celebrated and given a platform while the victims plead for justice. India is watching!" tweeted Kavitha.
Kavitha's brother and Telangana minister KT Rama Rao also launched an attack on the BJP, describing it as the "Balatkaar Justification Party. "Welcome to Amritkaal," taunted KTR. "Balatkaar Justification Party and its brazen embrace of these rapists is a true reflection of their mindset," tweeted KTR.
Shailesh Bhatt, one of the 11 rapists of Bilkis Bano was seen sharing the stage with a Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) MP in Dahod, Gujarat during an event. Shailesh Chimanlal Bhatt was seen on stage with Dahod MP Jasvantsinh Bhabhor on March 25.
Notably, the 11 men convicted in the case walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15 last year after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. They had served more than 15 years in jail.
Furthermore, last week on Wednesday, the Supreme Court agreed to constitute a special bench to hear a plea by Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped during the 2002 Gujarat riots, against the remission of the sentences of 11 convicts. The convicts had gang-raped Bilkis Bano and murdered her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots. A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala assured Bano, represented through her lawyer Shobha Gupta, that the new bench would be formed.