Remission granted to 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano Case challenged before SC

Bilkis Bano, who was pregnant, was gangraped and her three-year-old daughter Saleha was among 14 killed by a mob on March 3, 2002.

NewsBharati    23-Aug-2022 13:10:28 PM
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New Delhi, August 23: The remission granted by Gujarat government to 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano case was challenged before Supreme Court on Tuesday. A bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said yes to look into the matter after advocate Aparna Bhat mentioned the matter seeking an urgent listing on Wednesday.

Bilkis Bano
 
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal also mentioned the matter and said, "The Supreme Court gave a discretion to the government to consider it. We are challenging the remission, not the order of Supreme Court".
 
 
The plea before the apex court was filed by member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, and social activist and professor Roop Rekha Verma.

Earlier on August 19, Telangana MLC K Kavitha wrote a letter to Chief Justice of India, NV Ramana urging Supreme Court to intervene in matter of the release of 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano rape case under the remission policy of the Gujarat government.

The Gujarat government released the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, on August 15.
 
 
Meanwhile, all 11 life-term convicts in the case were released as per the remission policy prevalent in Gujarat at the time of their conviction in 2008.

In March 2002 during post-Godhra riots, Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter. She was five months pregnant when rioters attacked her family in Vadodara.