JOIN USCelebrating 'Amrit Kaal' by freeing rapists, murderers
It is in keeping with the spirit of the times that the Gujarat government celebrated the 75th anniversary of India's Independence by freeing 11 criminals who were convicted for life for having gang-raped Bilkis Bano and other women in 2002 and murdering Bilkis's three-year-old daughter, Saleha and 13 others. All of them were qualified enough to be freed because, after all, they had raped Muslim women and killed Muslims, just as Veer Savarkar wished. How can this be called a crime? For Savarkar, it was a legitimate political or ideological action.
Governments projected Savarkar as a major hero of Indian Independence this year more than any other year. His ideology is the official ideology of today's Indian state. Veer Savarkar, in his book 6 Glorious Epochs, justified rape as a political weapon. After being freed, a criminal even said that he was punished because of his political ideology. He may be trying to say that he had not committed any crime, only implemented the political ideology of Savarkar. According to the newspaper, when he raped and murdered, he was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party for which Savarkar is one of the ideological gurus. According to the ideology promoted by him, killing Muslims and raping Muslim women is legitimate and should be done so that they do not do the same to Hindus.
With the release of Muslim killers and rapists from prison, the meaning of the Amrit Mahotsav being celebrated by the Bharatiya Janata Party governments is clearly understood. For whom is this nectar, and for whom is this poison? Is this ironical that in the reasons given for the premature release of these criminals, one was 'the nature of the crime'? The crime, which you would call heinous and unforgivable, for the Gujarat authorities and then the Gujarat government is a ground which makes these criminals worthy of receiving the nectar of freedom.
It is reported that this extraordinary remission was given after the unanimous decision of the Jail Advisory Committee of Panchmahal, which was then approved by the state government. The committee headed by the district collector had eight members. Apart from the officials of the jail, police, local judiciary, and social welfare department, two public representatives were the members of this committee. Both belong to the BJP, so there is no need to say anything about their ideology. But the remaining six officers were also in favour of this release on the occasion of August 15. From this, you can imagine how invisible and commonsensical the Savarkari ideology has become.
We can infer that majority of these, if asked, will say that hanging should be the punishment for rape. In our country, murder is not considered a crime as big as rape. Then why would the members of this committee have shown this generosity towards them on the occasion of the 75th year of Independence?
These 11 rapists and murderers were part of a gang that chased, surrounded and attacked 17 Muslims on March 2, 2002. These 17 members of Bilkis and her family had fled to save their lives from their village, Radhikapur, in the Dahod district of Gujarat. They fled their village fearing violence against them as attacks on Muslims had begun a day earlier after a coach of the Sabarmati Express caught fire and burnt to death 56 people near Godhra station. Those who say that the violence against Muslims in Gujarat was a spontaneous reaction to Godhra do not know that there was a solid reason for Bilkis and her family's fear. On the previous Bakrid, there were attacks on Muslims in their village. They were rightly afraid that they would be attacked again. And the fear proved to be true.
On March 2, while running from violence for safety, Bilkis reached Chhaparwad village. She was surrounded by a gang carrying sticks, sickles, axes and swords. The marauders gang-raped Bilkis and three women. Bilkis's three-year-old daughter Saleha was killed by smashing her head on the ground. Fourteen members of the family were killed. The bodies of six of these were not found. The unconscious Bilkis survived. A tribal woman gave her a cloth to cover her body. With the help of a home guard, she reached the Limkheda police station. She tried to get the report written. But as CBI later wrote, Head Constable Sombhai Ghori "suppressed material facts and wrote a distorted and truncated version" of her complaint. According to The Indian Express, the CBI "also found that the post-mortem examination was carried out shoddily in order to protect the accused. CBI investigators exhumed the bodies of those killed in the attack, and said that none of the seven bodies had skulls."
It was when Bilkis reached the Godhra relief camp and the National Human Rights Commission took up her case that her fight for justice began with the Gujarat Police creating every possible obstacle and repeatedly filing reports calling for the closure of the investigations.
Those were different times, though. In the National Human Rights Commission, the sense of both human and rights was alive. The government machinery of Gujarat tried its best to save the criminals of the gang rape of Bilkis and the mass murder. But then the Supreme Court was also aware of the supremacy of justice and its responsibility to ensure it, so like many other cases, it was ordered to be shifted from Gujarat to Maharashtra. A Bilkis fighting for justice was insecure in Gujarat.
After six long years of battle, Bilkis got justice. During these six years, she and her husband had to change their bases repeatedly. They had to live with their identities hidden. Human rights activists across the country kept her and her family hidden to keep them alive till justice was done. This story is fascinating and also shameful for this country.
In 2008, a CBI court sentenced 12 of the accused to life imprisonment for the offences of gang rape and murder. Later the Bombay High Court upheld that sentence. Seventeen years after this crime, the Supreme Court gave her Rs 50 lakh, a house and a job, ordering the Gujarat government to compensate for the injustice done to Bilkis.
It was the highest compensation awarded by the courts in matters like this. It was done keeping in view the seriousness of the crime. Then why, in 2022, has this feeling of seriousness disappeared? Why couldn't the Gujarat authorities and the government foresee how unsafe Bilkis and his family would be with the release of the killers and rapists?
Why could the state not think on behalf of Bilkis? Some newspapers are lamenting that the Gujarat government has acted against the Prime Minister's advice to respect women. They forgot that the prime minister today was the chief minister of Gujarat when Bilkis and her family members were left unprotected before the rapists and killers. His state also left her alone in her battle for justice. His police didn't even want to investigate the crime. It was his police that distorted the report and suppressed facts to close the case. Bilkis was not safe in Gujarat during his chief ministership. So she had to leave the state. Gujarat, under his chief ministership, was not safe for a woman named Bilkis to fight for justice. The case had to be taken out of state. The newspapers could not ask why the preacher of today had left Bilkis alone in her struggle, despite having all the means as the head of the state to support her.
Why, why, why? Why was Bilkis Bano insecure under the leadership of that chief minister? Is this question only for Zakia Jafri to ask? And why does Teesta Setalvad have to stay in jail for standing with Zakia for being able to ask this question for 20 years?
(The writer teaches at Delhi University)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.