Bilkis Bano case: SC sets aside Gujarat govt’s decision to grant remission to 11 convicts

• During the 2002 post-Godhra riots, Bilkis Bano was gang-raped
• in 2008,11 men were convicted for raping Bilkis Bano
• in 2022, Gujarat govt granted remission to 11 convicts

New Delhi: The Supreme Court sets aside the Gujarat government’s decision to grant remission to 11 convicts sentenced to life term for the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and killing her family members during the 2002 Gujarat communal riots.

Supreme Court holds not Gujarat but the Maharashtra government competent to pass orders.

The premature release of the 11 in August have triggered nationwide outrage and protests, following which many petitions were filed in the Supreme Court, including by Bilkis and many social activists and members of the civil society and others.

The 11 men were convicted in 2008 for raping her and killing seven of her family members, including her daughter, during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Bilkis on November 30 had knocked the doors of the Supreme Court and filed a Review Petition against the premature release of the 11 convicts sentenced to life term for her rape and murder of seven of her family members.

"Bilkis Bano is the victim of one of the most gruesome and inhuman communal hate crimes India has ever witnessed. She muster the courage and regroup herself to hold the baton once again, after getting over with the extremely excruciating 17 years long drawn legal battle in ensuring that her culprits are punished for the egregious crime they had committed," Bilkis's petition said.