Bilkis Bano and her husband
Godhra:
All of the eleven convicts sentenced to life imprisonment within the 2002 post-Godhra Bilkis Bano gang rape case on Monday had been launched from the Godhra sub-jail after the Gujarat authorities allowed their launch underneath its remission coverage, an official stated.
A particular Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court docket in Mumbai on January 21, 2008, sentenced the eleven accused to life imprisonment on the cost of gang rape and homicide of seven members of Bilkis Bano’s household. Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay Excessive Courtroom.
These convicts had served greater than 15 years in jail after which considered one of them approached the Supreme Courtroom with a plea for his untimely launch.
The apex court docket had directed the Gujarat authorities to look into the difficulty of remission of his sentence following which the federal government shaped a committee, stated Panchmahals Collector Sujal Mayatra, who headed the panel.
“A committee formed a few months back took a unanimous decision in favour of remission of all the 11 convicts in the case. The recommendation was sent to the state government, and yesterday we received the orders for their release,” stated Mayatra.
Bilkis Bano’s members of the family had been attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village in Limkheda taluka of the Dahod district throughout the post-Godhra riots on March 3, 2002.
Bilkis Bano, who was 5 months pregnant at the moment, was gang-raped and 7 members of her household had been killed. Six different members managed to run away, the court docket was advised.
The accused within the case had been arrested in 2004.
The trial started in Ahmedabad. Nevertheless, after Bilkis Bano expressed apprehensions that witnesses could possibly be harmed and the proof collected by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) tampered with, the Supreme Courtroom transferred the case to Mumbai in August 2004.
The particular CBI court docket on January 21, 2008, sentenced the eleven accused to life imprisonment on the cost of gang rape and homicide of seven members of Bilkis Bano’s household.
In its 2018 order upholding the conviction of the accused individuals, the Bombay Excessive Courtroom additionally put aside the acquittal of seven individuals within the case.
The 11 convicts who had been granted untimely launch are Jaswantbhai Nai, Govindbhai Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radhesham Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt, and Ramesh Chandana.
One in all them, Radheshyam Shah, had approached the Gujarat Excessive Courtroom looking for remission of the sentence underneath sections 432 and 433 of the Code of Felony Process.
The excessive court docket dismissed his plea whereas observing that the “appropriate government” to resolve about his remission is Maharashtra and never Gujarat.
Shah then filed a plea within the Supreme Courtroom pleading that he had been in jail for 15 years and 4 months with out remission as of April 1, 2022.
In its order dated Could 13, the highest court docket acknowledged that because the crime was dedicated in Gujarat, the state of Gujarat was the suitable authorities to look at Shah’s software.
The SC directed the Gujarat authorities to think about the applying for untimely launch when it comes to the coverage dated July 9, 1992 and should resolve inside two months.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
