The Bombay High Court, today has denied the death penalty for 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case.
The rape of a 19-year old pregnant woman, Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family members was one of the most horrifying incidents that had taken place during the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat. The victim, from the past 15 years, had taken up the matter with the local police, an NGO, CBI and the courts, to get justice for herself.
The Horrifying Incident:
On March 3, 2002, Bilkis Bano along with her family were on their way, escaping a huge crowd on the truck. At that time of the incident, Bilkis was five months pregnant, and 17 other people were accompanying her in the truck, along with her 2-year old daughter. The truck was attacked by an armed mob, at Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad, who gangraped her and killed 14 of her family members, including her daughter, her mother Halima and cousin Shamim, says sources.
Bilkis then approached the local police station to register a case against the convicts. However, the police dismissed the case and threatened her with dreadful consequences if she proceeded with the matter. Later, she approached an NGO, the National Human Rights Commission of India and petitioned the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court directed the CBI to investigate into the matter. The CBI referring it as the “rarest of rare” case, sought death penalty for three of the 11 convicts, on the ground, that they were the main accused in the crime. The CBI had alleged that the three men had raped Bilkis, her sister and her mother. The CBI also challenged the release of the five Gujarat police officers by the trial court, alleging that the policemen conspired with the accused by “manipulating the documents and compromising the inquest panchnama.” Bilkis along with her family received threats, which forced her to request the Supreme Court, to move the case outside Gujarat. Bilkis even expressed apprehensions, that witnesses could be harmed and the CBI evidence could be tampered. The SC then shifted the case to Mumbai, in August 2004.
In the Mumbai court, charges were filed against 19 men, including 6 police officials and a government doctor. In January 2008, 11 of them were sentenced to life imprisonment for gangrape and murder. The convicted policemen and doctors are - Narpat Singh, Idris Abdul Saiyed, Bikabhai Patel, Ramsingh Bhabhor, Sombhai Gori, Arun Kumar Prasad (doctor) and Sangeeta Kumar Prasad (doctor). Now 18 people stand convicted in the case. Last year, the court had reserved its judgment in the appeals filed by 11 persons convicted in the case, and also the appeal filed by CBI for capital punishment to three of them.
The High Court set aside the release of the seven persons including policemen and doctors. A division bench of Justices V K Tahilramani and Mridula Bhatkar said, “The appeal against conviction filed by the 11 convicts (one convict is dead) is dismissed. The conviction and sentence is upheld.” The court said today, “We will consider the undergone period in jail of these seven persons as their sentence. But we will impose a fine amount of them.”
The 11 convicted 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. The convicts had challenged the order on three main grounds:
1) All evidence in the case was fabricated by CBI.
2) Bilkis gave birth to a child after the incident, thus, the same proved that she could not have been gangraped.
3) The failure to find the bodies of some of her family members proves that they were not killed.
JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED !!
SUPRAJA
