Bilkis Bano Case: The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Gujarat government on the petition filed against the release of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. The court will convene the next hearing on the matter after two weeks.

The Gujarat government had released all the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case under a constitutional provision. This decision of the Gujarat government is also being criticized a lot. Even the opposition as well as all the BJP leaders have raised questions on this decision.

This decision of the Gujarat government has been challenged in the Supreme Court. Four people, including social activist Subhashini Ali, have demanded the cancellation of the Gujarat government’s decision. Hearing this, the Supreme Court said, the question is whether the convicts are entitled to exemption under the rules of Gujarat or not? We have to see whether this was taken into account while giving the exemption or not.

Gujarat government decided on the recommendation of the committee

After the 2002 riots in Godhra, Gujarat, Bilkis Bano was gang-raped. 7 people of his family were also murdered. In this case in 2008, 11 convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment. One of these convicts had approached the Supreme Court for release. The court had left the decision of release to the Gujarat government. The Gujarat government had formed a committee to take a decision regarding the release. All the culprits have been released on the report of this committee.

What is the Bilkis Bano case?

Constitution Bench will sit in Supreme Court after two and a half years, will hear 25 cases
On 27 February 2002, the coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra station in Gujarat. Karsevaks were returning from Ayodhya by this train. Due to this, 59 kar sevaks sitting in the coach died. After this, riots broke out in Gujarat. To escape the riots, Bilkis Bano had left the village with her daughter and family.

On 3 March 2002, a mob of 20-30 people attacked with swords and sticks where Bilkis Bano and his family were hiding. The mob raped Bilkis Bano. Bilkis was 5 months pregnant at the time. Not only this, 7 members of his family were also murdered. The remaining 6 members had fled from there.

These convicts were released

In this case, the CBI court had convicted 11 and sentenced them to life imprisonment. But now after the decision of the Gujarat government, all the 11 convicts were released. The convicts who have been released in this case include Jaswantbhai Nai, Govindbhai Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radheshyam Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohaniya, Pradeep Mordhia, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt and Ramesh Chandana.