Bilkis Bano Case: Over 6000 social activists demand Supreme Court to quash the release of the convicts

All the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case have been released from jail on August 15 as per the pardon policy of the Gujarat government. This decision of the government has been in dispute since the release of the convicts. Leaders of other parties including senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi also criticized this decision. Now about 6000 social workers have approached the Supreme Court against this decision of the Gujarat government.

According to the information received, other eminent personalities including human rights activists, historians and bureaucrats have urged the Supreme Court to quash the release of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. Terming the decision to release the convicts as a 'serious miscarriage of justice, these people have demanded to quash the Gujarat government's decision.
Common citizens, as well as grassroots activists, human rights activists, eminent writers, historians, scholars, filmmakers, journalists and former bureaucrats, were among those who sent letters to the Supreme Court in this matter. Prominent groups including Saheli Women Resource Centre, Gamana Women's Group, Bebak Collective, and All India Progressive Women's Association were also part of the signatories.

All of them said in a joint statement that it is a matter of shame that the day we should celebrate our freedom and be proud of our freedom, on the day the gang rapists and mass murderers were released. It is to be known that 11 convicts for gang-raping Bilkis Bano and brutally killing seven of his family members in the 2002 Godhra incident were sentenced to life imprisonment.

But on 15 August, all of them were released from jail under the pardon policy of the Gujarat government. After the release of the convicts, Bilkis Bano said that this decision is going to break the trust of justice. After the release of the convicts, her husband had said that there was a threat to the life of the family. Apart from this, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi also criticized the government for this decision.

It may be mentioned that during the 2002 Gujarat riots, Bilkis was 20 years old. Five months pregnant Bilkis Bano was gang-raped in the violence that erupted after burning the train of kar sevaks. Along with this, seven members of the family, including her three-year-old innocent daughter, were brutally murdered. In January 2008, a special CBI court in Mumbai sentenced 11 out of 20 accused to life imprisonment in this case. They were released on 15 August.