New Delhi: Gang-rape survivor Bilkis Bano has told the Supreme Court that 'she saw her first child being smashed on a rock to death, and she kept pleading to the perpetrators of the brutal crimes for forgiveness, but they didn't listen to it.'
"I see my first child being smashed on a rock. I keep on pleading that I am like a sister to them (convicts), as she knows all of them, because she was from that locality.
She knew all these people," Bilkis Bano's lawyer told the Supreme Court's two-judge bench, headed by Justice B V Nagarathna and also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan.
Ms Gupta, narrating Bilkis Bano's ordeal, trauma and the kind of gruesome act, she had faced, said, that to an extent she is scared to face men, cannot be in crowds or around strangers.
"She has not recovered from trauma. We thought this was over, but then the remission happenes," Ms Gupta told the Apex Court.
While dealing with the issue of compensation, a three-judge bench of this Top court noted that this was a case which shocked conscience of public & was uncommon, she told the Apex Court.
"Bilkis was brutally gangraped while she was pregnant. First child of Bilkis, smashed on a rock to death. Mother of Bilkis gangraped & murdered. Four minor brothers & sisters were murdered. The crimes committed are horrendous in nature," she told the Top Court.
The case was reopened, investigation directed to be done by the CBI.
The investigation was not only unsatisfactory but it smacked of dishonest steps to screen the culprits. This itself is the most incriminating circumstance against the accused. Earlier investigation has played the role of villain in this case. That the investigation was tainted, she told the SC.
It was not a pre-meditated murder or rape and it is not an offence against public morality. This is not a fit case to enhance the sentence, she told the Supreme Court.
The prosecution case is that it is not only one or two murders but it is a case of mass murders where the women were ravished and raped and it has shocked the social conscience, Ms Gupta told the Apex Court.
Her submission was inconclusive today and would continue for tomorrow before the same bench of the SC.
The Gujarat government awarded remission to all her 11 convicts and freed them on on August 15, last year. Bano has filed a writ petition in the Top Court challenging the remissions granted to 11 convicts. (UNI)
