JOIN USThe Bombay High Court’s judgment, which upheld the life sentence for 11 persons held guilty of rape and murder in the Bilkis Bano case and convicted five police personnel and two doctors who had been acquitted by the lower court, is a victory of justice against severe odds. It is also an indictment of the Gujarat government of 2002. The then 19-year-old pregnant woman’s experience was among the most inhuman and terrible of the atrocities that happened during the 2002 communal riots. She was attacked by a mob and gang-raped, the head of her three-year-old child was smashed, and 14 members of her family were killed before her eyes. The police did not file a proper FIR and left out serious charges and the identities of the assailants, and doctors connived with the police. But Bilkis Bano waged a long and difficult battle for justice and has now been vindicated.
It was probably because the National Human Rights Commission took up her case and the Supreme Court transferred its investigation from the Gujarat police to the CBI and the trial from the state courts to outside the state that there is a just closure now. The high court’s comments have made this amply evident. It said that “the acts of commission and omission of the local police and the medical officers cannot be examined in isolation” and that they are “well-connected in a chain of suppression of facts with the intent to screen the offenders and save them.” This was a widely made charge against the Gujarat administration during the riots and now there is one more case which has convincingly proved the truth of that charge. The court clearly said that the police acted with dishonesty and the doctors were casual and suppressed information.
Such lapses and criminal conduct of the police and officials would not have been possible if there was no favourable environment for it and if the state’s political authorities had not created it. But except a minister, Maya Kodnani, and some lesser persons, hardly anyone who had political power was brought to book for their role in the riots. Some officials who were indicted by the courts were reinstated by the government. There are many cases which are yet to move forward. Even the Bilkis Bano case took 15 years to reach this stage. The message is mixed. It shows that while in some individual cases justice may prevail, no one may be held to account for the big crime, which is the overall failure and refusal of the government to protect the lives of a section of the citizens.