Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept 9: The Supreme Court ordered Gujarat government on Friday to provide the complete record of the Bilkis Bano case’s proceedings, including the remission order given to the 11 convicts who had gang-raped Bano and fatally shot her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots.
The Gujarat government was given two weeks to produce all pertinent data in the case by a bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and BV Nagarathna.
On a petition submitted by TMC MP Mahua Moitra opposing the release of the convicts, the bench also sent notice to the Gujarat government and the defendants.
Earlier, the Gujarat government had received notice from the apex court regarding the appeal submitted by professor Roop Rekha Verma, journalist Revati Laul, and Communist Party of India (Marxist) member Subhashini Ali. In the petition, it was requested that the petitioner prevent prisoners.
The appeal requested the order abrogating 11 convicts’ remission of their sentences and ordering their prompt re-arrest.
“It is submitted that it would appear that the constitution of members of the competent authority of the Gujarat government also bore allegiance to a political party and sitting MLAs. As such, it would appear that the competent authority was not an authority that was entirely independent, and one that could independently apply its mind to the facts at hand,” the plea stated.
Notably on August 15, the Gujarati government freed the 11 defendants who had been given life sentences. According to Gujarat’s remission policy in effect at the time of the case’s conviction in 2008, all 11 life-term inmates were released.
Bano was allegedly gang-raped in March 2002 during the post-Godhra riots and left to die alongside 14 other family members, including her three-year-old daughter. When Vadodara rioters attacked her family, she was five months pregnant.
