The Supreme Court on Monday cancelled its May 2022 order – delivered by Justice Ajay Rastogi (retired) – which allowed the 11 men who raped Bilkis Bano, and murdered her family, during the 2002 Godhra riots, to appeal to the Gujarat government for early remission, which was granted.
The court said the order was “obtained through fraudulent means and suspension of facts” and rebuked the state for not filing a petition to review the convicts’ release. It said the Gujarat government should have noted the convicts could only be released by Maharashtra, where they were tried.
“By suppressing material facts and making misleading facts, a direction was sought by a convict to the state of Gujarat to consider remission. There was no direction from this court to the Gujarat government to consider remission. This is a fraud act…” the court said.
READ | Bilkis Bano’s Rapists’ Release Cancelled: What Supreme Court Said
The 11 convicts have been given two weeks to return to jail.
READ | 11 Convicts In Bilkis Bano Gang-Rape Case To Surrender Within 2 Weeks
The court was referring to its hearing of a writ petition by one of the convicts – Radheyshyam Bhagwandas Shah – after the Gujarat High Court, in July 2019, refused his appeal to the state to decide on his remission. Under the law, he was required to appeal before the court, which somehow both accepted the writ petition and directed the Gujarat government to decide on the remission plea.
READ | “Gujarat Not Competent To…”: Bilkis Bano’s Rapists To Return To Jail
The convict had approached Maharashtra but filed his petition before that state could take a call.
In August too a bewildered Supreme Court had questioned its May 2022 order.
READ | “Gujarat Government On Thin Ice”: Supreme Court In Bilkis Bano Case
The convicts were released by the Gujarat government on Independence Day in 2022 on the basis of an obsolete law. This was after it consulted a panel that included men linked to the ruling BJP.
The panel declared the rapists and killers were “sanskari Brahmins”, and they were released citing a 1992 remission policy; this has since been superseded by a law barring releases in capital offence cases.
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The convicts were given a hero’s welcome and were seen sharing stage with a BJP MP and MLA.
Bilkis Bano was 21 and five months’ pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing during the communal riots that broke out after the fire in Sabarmati Express in which 59 kar sevaks were killed. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members slaughtered in the riots.
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