# Bilkis Bano case

During the 2002 Gujarat riots, Bilkis Bano, who was five months pregnant, fled her home in Randhikpur village in an attempt to escape the violence sweeping the region. She was accompanied by her husband, her 3-year-old daughter, and other family members. Hoping to find safety, the group sought refuge in the Chhaparvad district. However, they were brutally attacked by a mob of 20-30 men armed with sickles, swords, and stones. The attackers targeted the group mercilessly, killing seven members of her family, including her young daughter, in a savage display of violence.
Bilkis Bano herself was subjected to unimaginable horror. Eleven men from the mob gang-raped her, along with her mother and three other women. Despite the traumatic and horrific ordeal, Bilkis Bano survived the attack. Her case gained national and international attention, highlighting the systemic failures in addressing crimes against women during communal violence and the enduring struggle for accountability and justice in India.

## Criminal proceeding

After police dismissed the case against her assailants, Mrs. Bilkis Bano approached the National Human Rights Commission of India and petitioned the Supreme Court seeking a reinvestigation. The Supreme Court granted the motion, directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the investigation. CBI appointed a team of experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) Delhi and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) under the guidance and leadership of Professor T. D. Dogra to exhume the mass graves to establish the identity and cause of death of the victims. The team successfully located and exhumed the remains of the victims.
The trial of the case was transferred out of Gujarat and into Maharashtra, and the central government was directed to appoint a public prosecutor. Charges were filed in a Mumbai court against nineteen people as well as six police officials and a government doctor over their role in the initial investigations.
In January 2008, eleven men were sentenced to life imprisonment for rapes and murders and a policeman was convicted of falsifying evidence. The Bombay High Court upheld the life imprisonment of the eleven men convicted for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots on 8 May 2017. The court also set aside the acquittal of the remaining seven accused in the case, including Gujarat police officers and doctors of a government hospital, who were charged with suppressing and tampering with evidence.

## Civil compensation

On 23 April 2019, the Supreme Court ordered the Gujarat government to pay her ₹50 lakh as compensation, and to provide her with a government job and housing in the area of her choice.

## Remission

In March 2022, Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah (one of the convicts) approached the SC seeking a remission of his sentence which would result in an early release. He claimed that the Gujarat State Government had an obligation to consider his early release as per the states’ 1992 remission policy. State governments may enact remission policies to allow individuals or certain classes of individuals to file applications for early release from prison.
On 15 August 2022, the eleven men sentenced to life imprisonment in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case were released from a Godhra jail by the Gujarat government. The judge who sentenced the rapists said the early release and welcoming set a bad precedent by the Gujarat government and warned that the move would have wide ramifications.
The panel which granted remission included two legislators from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was the state government at that time, former BJP Godhra municipal councillor, and a BJP women wing member. A BJP MLA, one of the panellists, has said that some of the convicts are "Brahmins" with good 'sanskaar' or values. After being released from the jail, they were welcomed with sweets and their feet touched in respect.
Two days after the remission, Bilkis Bano issued a statement expressing her grief at the release of her rapists, saying "The release of these convicts has taken from me my peace and shaken my faith in justice." Many Muslims from her village left their homes due to safety concerns.

## Supreme Court decision on remission

On 18 August 2022, around 6,000 signatories, including activists, eminent writers, historians, filmmakers, journalists and former bureaucrats, urged the Supreme Court to revoke the early release of the rapists, while the Opposition parties criticised the BJP. The convicts harassed the witnesses of the case when they were out on parole as recently as in the year 2021, which added to the criticism of the remission.
A few days later, Supreme Court agreed to look into plea challenging release of 11 convicts. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India N. V. Ramana, Justice Ajay Rastogi, and Justice Vikram Nath however posed a query with respect to the legal bar on grant of remission to the convicts.
On 8 January 2024, Supreme Court of India has held that the Gujarat government was not competent to grant remission because the remission could only be granted by the government of the state where the trial was held, namely Maharashtra. The Court struck down the remission granted, in August 2022, to the 11 men who had been sentenced to life imprisonment. The court ordered the men to surrender to the jail authorities within 15 days.