Bilkis Bano rape case: 9 out of 11 convicts 'missing'; Dahod SP says ‘not incommunicado, meeting relatives’

livemint.com:

Bilkis Bano rape case: The eleven convicts who were supposed to return to jail, following the Supreme Court of India order quashing Gujarat government's decision to grant them remission, are yet to surrender. Further reports have said that nine of the eleven convicts remain missing.

Dahod SP has said that the Dahod police station have not yet received any information about the surrender of 11 convicts. A police force remains deployed in the area where the convicts live to maintain peace, he said.

The Dahod SP Balram Meena also mentioned that the eleven convicts are "not incommunicado" and some of them are visiting relatives. The convicts are natives of Singvad taluka where police were deployed since Monday morning, before the judgement was pronounced, to maintain law and order and ensure that communal conflict does not break out, he said.

According to a report by Indian Express, Akhambhai Chaturbhai Raval (87), father of one of the convicts, Govind Nai (55), blamed the conviction on “political vendetta of Congress". Raval said Govind had left the house “a week ago".

Another convict, Radheshyam Shah, has not been home “since the last 15 months", his father Bhagwandas Shah said and claimed that he “doesn’t know where Radheshyam is… he went with his wife and son", even as neighbours and shopkeepers at the village square attest that nearly all the convicts were publicly seen until Sunday, including Radheshyam, reports Financial Express. The report further added that local villagers and shopkeeper, who attested to seeing the Bilkis Bano raope case convicts till the Supreme Court judgement now say, “You won’t find them now. All of them locked their houses and left." The convicts are residents of twin villages of Randhikpur and