Bilkis Bano moves Supreme Court, wants rapists sent back to jail
Bikis Bano has challenged the high court order that released her rapists. The early release of the 11 convicts who were sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2002 gangrape case drew nationwide criticism and several petitions questioning the decision of the Gujarat government were filed in the top court.
FollowBilkis Bano on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the premature release of 11 convicts who walked free on August 15 this year. The Gujarat government approved the release of the 11 men under its remission policy, and they left the Godhra sub-jail on August 15. They'd spent more than 15 years behind bars.
The lawyer for Bilkis Banos presented the case to Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud for listing. The Chief Justice of India (CJI) stated that he will look into the matter to see if both pleas can be heard together and if they may be heard by the same bench.
Bilkis Bano was brutally raped by men she had known for years, when she was 20 years old and many months pregnant. She was left nearly lifeless after being gang-raped. She saw the deaths of her family members. On March 3, 2002, her three-year-old daughter was also killed.
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On regaining consciousness, Bilkis borrowed clothes from a tribal woman and went to police station in Dahod district to register a complaint. The head constable there suppressed facts and wrote a truncated version of the complaint.
A special CBI court in Mumbai found 11 of the 20 suspects guilty in January 2008 of conspiring to rape a pregnant lady, murder, unlawful assembly, and other offences under different Indian Penal Code provisions.
Earlier, the Gujarat government had argued before the Supreme Court that it was justified in granting remission to the 11 defendants in the Bilkis Bano case since they had served 14 years of their sentences and had "behaved in a good manner." The state government said it has considered the cases of all 11 prisoners as per the policy of 1992 and remission was granted on August 10, 2022, and the Central government also approved the pre-mature release of convicts.
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