This article has been written by Bidisha Banerjee, a 2nd year B.A LL.B student of Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, University of Calcutta.
INTRODUCTION
Bilkis Bano rape case is one of the many henious crimes that took place during the Gujarat riots of 2002. In this case, the then 19-year-old Bilkis Yakub Rasool, 5 months pregnant, got gang-raped, after getting caught by a mob of 20-30 men during her exodus with her family, wherein many of her family members were either killed or went missing.
This article enumerates the tragedy of Bilkis Bano in detail and its recent developments.
BODY
A mob of Muslims attacked a coach of Godhra-heading Sabarmati Express, departing from Ayodhya and carrying Hindu passengers. The train was ignited and resulted in the death of around 59 Hindus.
No sooner did the news of the attackers being Muslim than a rage fueled the Hindus of Gujarat. In retaliation, the Hindus started attacking Muslim throughout the state. They looted, killed and raped the Muslims. This resulted in the death of many Muslim people. Bilkis Bano(born in 1981)and family were among the numerous Muslim families, who were attacked by the Hindu mobs. On receiving the news of Hindus attacking Muslims, her family decided to flee to a safer place.
Bilkis(then, 5 months pregnant) with her daughter, mother, siblings and other family members took shelter at her village sarpanch’s house. From there, they fled and hid in a school in their village, and then in a mosque. One of her cousins, who was 9 months pregnant during the exodus, gave birth to a baby girl. Bilkis and her family tried escaping for 2-3 days but got caught by a Hindu mob, armed with swords and sticks, on the fateful day of 3rd March, 2002.
Bilkis, her mother and other female members of family were brutally raped by the some men of the mob. One of them even snatched Bilkis’ three year old daughter from her. He smashed her on a stone, which ended up killing her. Out of 17 family members, eight were dead and others went missing. She was the sole survivor of the tragedy because she was left unconscious when the mob thought her to be dead.
Bilkis regained consciousness after almost 3 hours. On waking up, she found herself naked. She covered herself with a petticoat laying around and fled to a nearby hillock. Next day, she woke up thirsty. In order to quench her thirst, she went to search for water. She reached a hand pump. An Adivasi woman came across her in her sorry state and gave her some clothes to wear.
Bilkis then spotted a police officer in the vicinity and approached for his help. The police officer took her to the Limkheda Police Station. At the police station, she gave her statement to the Head Constable Somabhai Gori, who refused to register her complaint and instead, sent her to a relief camp. There, she met her husband.
She went through a medical examination and her cas was taken to the National Human Rights Commission(NHRC). The NHRC took it to the Supreme Court. The case was transferred to CBI, who failed to find the bodies of the family members as they were beheaded. On Bilkis’ request, the Apex Court transferred her case from Gujarat to a special court in Mumbai, in August 2004. A case was filed against 19 men, including 6 police officers and a government doctor. Bilkis knew the names of the accused as most of them belonged to her village. Advocate Shobha Gupta took Bilkis’ case.
On 21st January, 2008, 13 men were convicted of rape charges. Out of them, 11 were sentenced to life imprisonment on the charges of conspiring to rape a pregnant woman, murder and unlawful assembly under the Indian Penal Code. In May 2017, the decision of the Mumbai special court was upheld by the High Court at Mumbai. In 2019, the Supreme Court asked the Gujarat government to pay Bilkis a compensation of fifty lakh rupees, which she refused to take.
In May 2022, a bench led by Justice Rastogi ruled that the Gujarat government can consider the remission plea on the account of the incident having taken place in Gujarat. Later, a panel was set up by the Gujarat government, which allowed the remission of the life sentence of the convicts. A review petition regarding the same was filed by Bilkis, which was dismissed by the Supreme Court in December 2022.
On August 15, 2022, the convicts were released from Godhra sub-jail. Having completed 14 years in prison and based on “age, nature of crime, behaviour in prison and so on”, their remission application was considered. The convicts were welcomed with sweets and garlands, and were felicitated by the RSS organisation, which garnered a lot of outcries online.
Earlier on March 22, 2023, when Advocate Shobha Gupta mentioned the matter before a Bench with CJI DY Chandrachud, she was assured that a Special Bench would be constituted to hear the matter. On 27th March 2023, the Supreme Court Bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna heard Bilkis Bano’s plea against the premature release of the convicts. The Supreme Court questioned whether uniform standards, followed in other murder cases, have been observed while allowing the premature release of 11 convicts, sentenced to life imprisonment on account of multiple murders and gang-rapes during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The Apex Court made Bilkis’ petition the lead case. The Bench asked the parties to complete pleadings by the next date of hearing. The State Government was directed to be ready with the relevant files granting remission to the parties.
The remission has been criticised on various grounds. It is said to disregard the seriousness of crimes against women and children. It is also said that although CrPC allows premature release in case of life imprisonment, it must be done by a legal and constitutional scheme, and not on a ruler’s wish.
CONCLUSION
Bilkis Bano case is one of the many nightmarish cases that has taken place in the country since Independence. The remission of her perpetrators left Bilkis devastated. She appealed to the Gujarat Government to ‘undo this harm’ and give her the right to “live without fear and in peace”. Earlier, she had to request the Apex Court to transfer her case outside Gujarat, owing to her receiving death threats, as a result of which she had to change her address 20 times. In the recent hearing, it was said that one of the convicts had molested a woman while he was on parole. The case is still pending against him. Senior Advocate AM Singhvi informed the Bench about the post-release conduct of the convicts. They are issuing death threats to the victim.
In her recent petition, Bilkis referred to Section 432(7)(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which said the “appropriate government” would be the “State within which the offender is sentenced”. The case is enlisted for its final hearing on April 18.
REFERENCES
https://wikibio.in/bilkis-bano/
https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/bilkis-bano-case-supreme-court-gujarat-remission-224869
https://www.iasparliament.com/current-affairs/gs-ii/bilkis-bano-case
The Hindu Newspaper(Delhi Edition), dated 28th March, 2023.
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