‘Doesn’t show Gujarat govt in good light’: Petitioners hail SC verdict in Bilkis Bano case

financialexpress.com:

After the Supreme Court’s verdict quashing the remission granted to the 11 convicted men in a case of the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family members, the family said it felt “relieved but not victorious”.

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan on Monday quashed the remission granted to the 11 men accused of gangraping Bano during the 2002 riots and ordered that they be sent back to jail within two weeks.

The court held that the BJP-led Gujarat government abused its power, ruling that the Gujarat government was “not competent” to pass the remission order. The court clarified that the state in which an offender is tried and sentenced has the authority to decide the remission. In this case, the convicts were tried in Maharashtra.

The bench was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Gujarat government’s decision to grant remission to the 11 convicted men. All of them were released on August 15, 2022, coinciding with 75 years of India’s Independence, dubbed as the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’.

A source close to Bano told IE, “The Supreme Court order has reinstated our faith in the judiciary and it gives us consolation that justice is alive… But, we cannot feel victorious yet as the convicts will prepare to apply for remission from the other state…”

“There is a doubt in our minds at the moment if the court will consider the plea of the convicts to remain outside prison while applying for remission. It seems like the fight is not over yet, until they are sent back to jail,” the source added.

After the verdict, some of Bilkis’ relatives burst firecrackers in Devgadh Baria town in Dahod district of Gujarat.

Bilkis was 21 years old and five months pregnant