Release of Bilkis Bano’s rapists challenged in Supreme Court, CJI considers listing it
Women’s rights activists on Tuesday filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court to revoke the remission of the 11 convicts involved in the Bilkis Bano case.
The PIL said the convicts should not be released as it is a case that involves gangrape and murder. Subhashini Ali, Revathi Laul and Roop Rekha Verma filed the PIL in the top court seeking orders to revoke the remission of the convicts.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal and Advocate Aparna Bhat also mentioned the case before a bench headed by NV Ramana, the Chief Justice of India. Sibal said the remission has been challenged adding, “14 people were killed and a pregnant woman was raped.”
The Supreme Court agreed to consider the plea.
Earlier, over 6,000 people, including activists and historians, urged the Supreme Court to revoke the early release of the convicts in the case.
WHAT IS THE CASE?
Bilkis was 20 years old and several months pregnant at the time she was subjected to brutality by men she had apparently known for years. She referred to one of them as ‘Chacha’ (uncle) and the others as brothers. She was gang-raped and left almost lifeless. She saw her family members being killed. Her three-year-old daughter was also murdered on March 3, 2002.
On regaining consciousness, Bilkis borrowed clothes from a tribal woman and went to the Limkheda police station in Dahod district to register a complaint. The head constable there suppressed facts and wrote a truncated version of the complaint.
It was just the beginning of her ordeal in pursuit of justice. She received death threats, prompting the Supreme Court, in 2004, to move the trial out of Gujarat to Mumbai.
In January 2008, a special CBI court in Mumbai convicted 11 of the 20 accused on charges of conspiracy to rape a pregnant woman, murder, unlawful assembly, and other charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. The head constable was convicted for “making incorrect records” to save the accused. Seven of the 20 accused were acquitted due to lack of evidence. One person died during the course of the trial.