Bilkis Bano case: SC seeks report on convicted cops

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 23

The Supreme Court today sought to know from the Gujarat Government if any departmental action had been taken against the police officers convicted in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang-rape case.

A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra—which asked the Gujarat Government to inform it in four weeks—also allowed the gang-rape survivor to file a fresh plea for enhancement of compensation for the gang-rape that took place during the Gujarat riots.

She has demanded adequate compensation and departmental action against those convicted. The Bombay High Court had on May 4 upheld the conviction and life sentence awarded to 12 persons in the gang-rape case. The high court had set aside the acquittal of seven persons, including policemen and doctors.

Bilkis Bano was gang-raped in March 2002 while she was pregnant. She lost seven of her family members in the riots that erupted after the Godhra train burning that had claimed lives of 58 karsevaks. Her family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village, near Ahmedabad, on March 3, 2002, during the riots.

In July, the apex court had rejected appeals of two doctors and four policemen, including an IPS officer, against the Bombay High Court’s order convicting them in the case, saying there was “clear-cut evidence” against them.

Seven persons, including five policemen and two doctors, were convicted for not performing their duty and tampering with evidence. The convicted policemen and doctors are Narpat Singh, Idris Abdul Saiyed, Bikabhai Patel, Ramsingh Bhabhor, Sombhai Gori, Arun Kumar Prasad (doctor) and Sangeeta Kumar Prasad (doctor).

On January 21, 2008, a special court had convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 11 men in the case.

They later approached the Bombay High Court challenging their conviction and sought for the trial court’s order to be quashed.

The CBI had also filed an appeal in the high court seeking death punishment for three convicts on the grounds that they were the main perpetrators of the crime.

The trial, which began in Ahmedabad, was later transferred to Mumbai in August 2004 after Bilkis Bano expressed apprehensions that witnesses could be harmed and evidence tampered with.