On 8 January, the top court annulled the remission granted to the 11 convicts and ordered them to surrender before jail authorities by 21 January.
Published Jan 22, 2024 | 10:10 AM ⚊ Updated Jan 22, 2024 | 10:10 AM
Bilkis Bano case.
All 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case have surrendered at the Godhra sub-jail in Gujarat’s Panchmahal district in keeping with the deadline set by the Supreme Court.
The 11 convicts surrendered before jail authorities late Sunday night, 21 January, local Crime Branch inspector NL Desai said.
“They reached the jail before midnight of 21 January, which was the deadline set for them to surrender,” he said.
The top court, on 8 January, annulled the remission granted by the Gujarat government to the 11 convicts in the high-profile case, while slamming the state for being “complicit” with an accused and abusing its discretion.
It ordered the convicts, who were released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022, to go back to jail within two weeks.
Further, the apex court, on Friday, rejected pleas of the convicts on various grounds, such as failing health, impending surgery, son’s marriage, and harvesting of crops, for grant of more time to surrender and asked them to do so by Sunday.
The 11 convicts are Bakabhai Vohania, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Govind Nai, Jaswant Nai, Mitesh Bhatt, Pradeep Mordhiya, Radheshyam Shah, Rajubhai Soni, Ramesh Chandana, and Shailesh Bhatt.
The convicts are residents of Singvad and Randhikpur villages in Singvad taluka of Dahod district near Panchmahal, Gujarat.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was brutally raped while fleeing after communal riots broke out in the aftermath of the Godhra train-burning incident in 2002. Her three-year-old daughter and six other family members were murdered at the time.
On 15 August 2022, the Gujarat government granted remission to all 11 convicts and released them after 14 years in jail as part of the life sentence, citing their “good conduct” during imprisonment.
However, on 8 January, the Supreme Court Bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said that the Gujarat government was not the appropriate government to pass the remission order.
The apex court held that the judgement of 13 May, 2022 (which directed the Gujarat government to consider remission) is a nullity as it was obtained by ”playing fraud on the court” and by suppressing material facts.
“The Gujarat government usurped the powers of the Maharashtra government, acting in furtherance of the judgement dated 13 May, 2022, which is, in our opinion a nullity. It was the state of Maharashtra which was the appropriate government to consider remission,” the Bench noted.
“The State of Gujarat acted in complicity with the convicts…it was this very apprehension which led this court to transfer the trial out of the state,” the Bench added.
The convicts have been directed to surrender before jail authorities within two weeks.
Reacting to the verdict, Bilkis Bano released a statement, issued through her advocate Shobha Gupta.
“Today is truly the New Year for me. I have wept tears of relief. I have smiled for the first time in over a year and half. I have hugged my children. It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again. This is what justice feels like,” Bano said in her statement.
She thanked the Supreme Court for their verdict in her favour, “I thank the honourable Supreme Court of India for giving me, my children, and women everywhere, this vindication and hope in the promise of equal justice for all.”
In her statement, she thanked her family and friends for their unwavering support, “I have said before, and I say again today, journeys like mine can never be made alone. I have had my husband and my children by my side. I have had my friends who have given me so much love at a time of such hate, and held my hand at each difficult turn. I have had an extraordinary lawyer, Advocate Shobha Gupta, who has walked with me unwaveringly for over 20 long years, and who never allowed me to lose hope in the idea of justice.”
She added, “Thousands of ordinary people and women of India came forward. They stood with me, spoke for me, and filed PIL petitions in the Supreme Court. 6,000 people from all over, and 8,500 people from Mumbai wrote appeals; 10,000 people wrote an Open Letter, as did 40,000 people from 29 districts of Karnataka.”
(With PTI inputs)
