Even as the Supreme Court is hearing the plea challenging the remission of sentence and the release of convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang-rape case, which also involves the killing of her family members including a child during the Gujarat riots, the Centre and authorities sanctioning this release have drawn flak over their approval.
All convicts of the Bilkis Bano rape case were set free by the Gujarat government citing the 1992 remission policy after they had completed more than 14 years in prison and their conduct was found to be 'good'.
Most of the convicts are now back in Randhikpur in Gujarat's Dahod district, where Bano once lived.
Even as pages of editorials and newspaper columns criticise the welcomes accorded to them and them being celebrated as good for being brahmins, one of the accused in a shocking statement said, "Hindus don't do that" when asked about the case.
"We're innocent. Have you seen an uncle and nephew rape someone in front of each other? Does it happen in Hindu community? No, Hindus don't do that," Gobind Nai, one of the accused in the case told NDTV.
The 11 life term convicts were out of jail for around 1,000 days even before being released on remission of life sentence and one of them was even charge-sheeted for outraging the modesty of a woman in 2020 while out on parole. According to the NDTV report, Nai was among those who allegedly threatened two persons who had testified against him in the case in in July 2017.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.
The 11 men convicted in the case walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15.
Published 23 October 2022, 05:02 IST