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2002 riots: SC tells Guj govt to pay victim 50L

Last Updated 23 April 2019, 09:34 IST

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Gujarat government to pay Rs 50 lakh as compensation, a government job and accommodation to Bilkis Bano alias Bilkis Yaqoob Rasool, who suffered multiple rapes and killing of her infant daughter during the 2002 riots.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna said, the money is the only healing balm that can be provided, as her counsel submitted that after the incident she was living a nomadic life.

The counsel said the woman-victim was aged just 21 years and she was left devastated having faced the mob fury. She was raped multiple times, her infant daughter was smashed to death, she said.

At the moment, she was left the mercy of NGOs and without a home.

The petitioner deserved to be adequately compensated, she said.

Accepting her plea, the court directed the state government to pay Rs 50 lakh within two weeks, besides give her a government job and accommodation.

The court also ordered for 100 % cut in pension three police personnel and disciplinary action of demotion by two posts against an IPS officer, R S Bhagora, within four weeks.

Five months pregnant at that time, Billie was gang raped, while six other members of her family managed to escape from the mob. The trial in the case initially began in Ahmedabad.

However, after Bano expressed apprehensions that the witnesses could be harmed and the CBI evidence tampered with, the apex court transferred the case to Mumbai in August 2004.

The high court had on May 4, 2017 convicted seven people -- five policemen and two doctors -- under sections 218 (not performing their duties) and section 201 (tampering of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The top court had on July 10, 2017 dismissed the appeals of two doctors and four policemen, including an IPS officer R S Bhagora, challenging their conviction by the high court saying there was "clear-cut evidence" against them. One of the officers did not appeal.

A special court had on January 21, 2008 convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 11 men for raping Bano and murdering seven of her family members in the aftermath of the Godhra riots, while acquitting seven persons including the policemen and doctors.

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(Published 23 April 2019, 08:31 IST)

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