No information yet on surrender of Bilkis case convicts: Police

PTI

Dahod (Gujarat), January 9

No information has been received yet about the surrender of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case after the Supreme Court quashed the Gujarat Government’s decision to grant them remission, but a police force remains deployed in the area where they live to maintain peace, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Take observations seriously: Pawar

• NCP chief Sharad Pawar has appealed to the Maharashtra Government to take seriously the case of Bilkis Bano, who was gangraped and her seven family members murdered in 2002, and keep in mind what the SC said about the "heinous crime"
• The 11 convicts in the case can approach the Maharashtra Government with request for remission of sentences
• Such crimes are not accepted in the society, he said

The convicts, however, are “not incommunicado” and some of them are visiting relatives, said Dahod Superintendent of Police Balram Meena. “The police have not received any information (regarding their surrender), and we have not received the copy of the (Supreme Court) judgment. The convicts are natives of Singvad taluka where police were deployed since Monday morning, before the judgment was pronounced, to maintain law and order and ensure that communal conflict does not break out,” he said.

“The convicts are not incommunicado, and some of them are visiting their relatives. We have no information and have not received any order copy, but police remain deployed in the entire Randhikpur police station area,” Meena said.

Bilkis Bano, then 21 years old and five months pregnant, was raped while fleeing after communal riots broke out in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter and six other family members were killed.

The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the remission granted to them while slamming the Gujarat Government for abusing its discretion. It ordered all the convicts, who were released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022, be sent back to jail within two weeks.

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