Supreme Court to consider hearing plea against release of Bilkis Bano rape convicts

& PTI

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New Delhi, August 23

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider listing a plea challenging the grant of remission by the Gujarat Government to 11 life convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Hima Kohli and CT Ravikumar took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal and lawyer Aparna Bhat against the grant of remission to the convicts serving life imprisonment in the sensational post-Godhra riots case.

“Let us see the papers,” said Chief Justice Ramana after the petition filed by three women activists — CPM leader Subhashini Ali, journalist and filmmaker Revati Laul and Prof Roop Rekha Verma — was mentioned before it by Sibal.

The 11 convicts prematurely released on August 15 were Jaswant Nai, Govind Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radhyesham Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt and Ramesh Chandana. They were said to have been released due to completion of 14 years in prison, besides their age and behaviour during incarceration.

Bilkis Bano, pregnant at the time of crime, was gangraped and her three-year-old daughter Saleha and 13 others were killed by a mob on March 3, 2002, in Dahod during violence that broke out in Gujarat after the Sabarmati Express was attacked in Godhra and 59 ‘kar sewaks’, were burnt to death.