Bilkis Bano case: Convict opposes petition against remission

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 24

One of the 11 life convicts prematurely released in the Bilkis Bano case has opposed the petitions filed by three activists and TMC MP Mahua Moitra against their release, saying they didn’t have any locus standi in the matter.

“This Hon’ble Court…has consistently held in clear terms that a third party who is a total stranger to the prosecution has no ‘locus standi’ in criminal matters and has no right whatsoever to file a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution,” convict Radheysham Bhagwandas Shah submitted in his affidavit to the top court.

He sought to highlight the fact that none of the petitioners were related to the case and they happened to be either political activists or a “third party” stranger. If entertained, such petitions would mean an open invitation to any member of the public to intervene in any criminal matter, he submitted.

The affidavit has been filed in response to the notice issued to the convicts and the Gujarat Government by the top court on August 25 on the petitions filed by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, journalist and filmmaker Revati Laul and Prof Roop Rekha Verma. Later, a fresh petition was also filed by TMC MP Mahua Moitra challenging the remission.

Bilkis Bano, pregnant at the time of the crime, was gangraped and her three-year-old daughter Saleha and 13 others were killed by a mob on March 3, 2002.

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