NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine a plea challenging the remission granted to the 11 who were convicted for the rape and murder in the 2002 Bilkis Bano case.
Why is the honor of Bilkis Bano less than any other woman in India?
Why this gross injustice doesn’t move you enough?
Where is the collective conscience of 1.3 billion people?
Why a hapless Muslim woman being made to revisit this trauma in the largest democracy of the world ?
— Arfa Khanum Sherwani (@khanumarfa) August 21, 2022
The plea was mentioned by advocate Aparna Bhat and senior advocate Kapil Sibal before a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana. The counsel submitted that they are challenging the remission order, and emphasised that a pregnant woman was raped and people were killed.
Bilkis Bano was the face of the anti- Muslim carnage of Gujarat in 2002. She was five months pregnant when she was gangraped, her 3 year old daughter brutally murdered by the mob. By releasing her accused, the Indian govt has sent a chilling message to Muslims in India. pic.twitter.com/U1Jgc9VZBq
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) August 18, 2022
The bench queried the counsel if they were granted remission by virtue of the top court order. Sibal replied that the apex court merely directed the state to consider the matter, and they were challenging the remission, not the top court order.
Dear Supreme Court of India, you have often stepped in and taken up cases on your own. Doesn’t Bilkis Bano deserve your intervention? Watch our show tonight at 9:30 as more shocking details emerge of how the convicts spent long periods on parole before their release pic.twitter.com/vuPBWcKfr7
— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) August 22, 2022
The bench said, “we will see”. Bhat urged the court to list the matter for Wednesday. The bench replied, “let us see the papers”.
National horror. International Shame. #BilkisBano pic.twitter.com/LcaGEhWjYw
— Caralisa Monteiro (@runcaralisarun) August 21, 2022
Eleven convicts, sentenced to life imprisonment, were released from Godhra sub-jail on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. The convicts had completed more than 15 years in jail.
In January 2008, a special CBI court in Mumbai had sentenced the convicts to life imprisonment for gang-rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano’s family. The Bombay High Court upheld their conviction.
Bano was 21-years-old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the violence that broke out after the Godhra train burning. — IANS