Plea Against Release Of Bilkis Bano's Rapists To Be Heard In Supreme Court

The Supreme Court today agreed to consider listing a plea challenging the grant of remission to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case.

SC agrees to hear PIL

The top court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Subhasini Ali, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, independent journalist and filmmaker Revati Laul and former philosophy professor and activist Roop Rekh Varma.

BCCL

A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana took note of the submissions of senior advocates Kapil Sibal (appearing for Ali) and Abhishek Singhvi (appearing for Moitra), and lawyer Aparna Bhat against the grant of remission and consequent release of the convicts in the case.

"We are only challenging the remission and not the Supreme Court order. The Supreme Court order is fine, My Lords. We are challenging the principles on the basis of which remission was granted," Sibal said.

Both Kapil Sibal and Aparna Bhat also mentioned that the remission has been challenged adding, ¡°14 people were killed and a pregnant woman was raped.¡±

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Bilkis Bano case

During the Gujarat Riots that took place in 2002, Bano, then 21 years old and five months pregnant, was gang-raped in the Dahod district of Gujarat as unprecedented violence tore across the state following the Sabarmati Express massacre. Seven of her family members, including her three year old daughter were also killed on the fateful day.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai on January 21, 2008, sentenced the eleven accused to life imprisonment on the charge of gang rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano's family. Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court.

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Gujarat's remission policy

All the eleven convicts sentenced to life imprisonment were freed after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy on August 15 amid a massive outcry.

Under the 1992 remission policy of Gujarat (which was stated in the Gujarat High Court order in 2012) convicts serving life sentences can be granted remission and released after they have served a minimum of fourteen years.

After being released, visuals of them being garlanded and offered sweets caused an uproar on social media.

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Their release

These convicts had served more than 15 years in jail after which one of them approached the Supreme Court with a plea for his premature release. The top court had directed the Gujarat government to look into the issue of remission of his sentence following which the government formed a committee.

The 11 convicts who were granted premature release are Jaswantbhai Nai, Govindbhai Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radhesham Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt, and Ramesh Chandana.

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Earlier, over 6,000 people, including activists and historians, urged the Supreme Court to revoke the early release of the convicts in the case.

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