New Delhi, Aug 25, 2022, By Special Correspondent

New Delhi, Aug 25: The Supreme Court on Thursday sent notice to the Gujarat government and the Centre on a plea that challenged the release of 11 men convicted of raping Bilkis Bano during post-Godhra riots in 2002.

 

The court said it will have to check if there was an application of mind while granting remission to the 11 convicts. CJI NV Ramana heard the plea with Justice Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath.

 

"Whatever acts were committed, they were convicted. The question is whether, under the relevant scheme, they were justified in being considered for remission," Jutsice Rastogi said.

 

He said that the top court had asked only to consider the matter in accordance with the law. The court also directed all the convicts whose release is being challenged, made a party.

 

CJI Ramana said, "I read somewhere that Supreme Court has granted permission for remission. No, court said only to consider."

 

The plea in the case was filed by CPI(M) Politburo member Subhashini Ali, journalist Ravati Laul and Prof Roop Rekha Verma. 

 

The Gujarat government on August 15 had released all the 11 convicts under its remission policy after they had served several years in jail. Their release was widely condemned by lawyers and women rights activists. 

 

The 11 men were convicted of gangraping Bilkis Bano and killing seven members of her family during the Gujarat riots in 2002. All 11 of these people lived in the neighbourhood of Bilkis Bano's house and knew her.

 

One of the convicts in the case Radheshyam Shah had approached the Gujarat HC seeking remission of the sentence under the sections 432 and 433 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. 

 

All 11 were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Special CBI court in 2008. The HC rejected the plea saying that the "appropriate government" to decide on this remission was Maharashtra and not Gujarat. 

 

He then filed a plea in the SC April 2022 seeking his remission. On May 13, 2022, the SC said that since the crime took place in Gujarat, the state of Gujarat was the "appropriate government" to examine Shah's application. 

 

The Gujarat government then formed a committee that unanimously took the decision to grant remission to all 11 convicts in the case and ordered its release on August 14. All the 11 convicts walked out of the jail on August 15. 

 

Bilkis Bano, who was five months pregnant, fled her village along with her family after riots broke out after the burning of 59 karsevaks in the Sabarmati train coach at Godhra station on February 27, 2002. On March 3, Bilkis Bano was attacked by 20-30 men who had swords, sickles and sticks in their hands. Bilkis's 3-year-old child was killed by one of the accused Shailesh Bhatt. 

 

The men then gangraped Bilkis and other women of her family and later killed 14 members of her family including women.

 

The SC had ordered a CBI probe in the case. The accused in the case were arrested in 2004.

 

The trial started in Ahmedabad but it was later transferred to Maharashtra after Bilkis Bano appealed to the court that the witnesses in the case could be harmed and evidence could be tampered.

 

The CBI special court in 2008 sentenced 11 accused to life imprisonment. It also released seven others in the case for want of evidence while one accused died during the case.

 

In 2019, the SC had ordered the Gujarat government to pay Rs 50 lakh compensation, a job and house to Bilkis Bano. 

 

On August 23, the apex court had agreed to consider listing the plea challenging the grant of remission by the state to the life convicts.

 

The plea referred to the sequence of events of the case recorded in judicial files and said, "It is submitted that on such facts, no right thinking authority applying any test under any extant policy would consider it fit to grant remission to persons who are found to have been involved in the commission of such gruesome acts."

  

"It is further submitted that it would appear that the constitution of members of the competent authority of the respondent No.1 (state of Gujarat) also bore allegiance to a political party, and also was 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," it said and quoted media reports to buttress its contention. 

  

The apex court had earlier asked the Gujarat government to consider the plea of remission. 

TMC MP Mahua Moitra has also filed a separate petition in the Supreme Court against the release of the convicts in the case. She alleged that the remission "completely fails to bolster either social or human justice and does not constitute a valid exercise of the guided discretionary power of the State".

The investigation in the case was handed over to the CBI and the trial was transferred to a Maharashtra local court by the Supreme Court.

A special CBI court in Mumbai on January 21, 2008, sentenced the 11 to life imprisonment on charges of gangrape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano's family. Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court.

The state had witnessed riots in 2002 after the Sabarmati Express was attacked in Godhra and 59 passengers, mainly 'kar sevaks', were burnt to death.