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Three of the 11 convicts in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in Gujarat moved the Supreme Court on Thursday requesting more time to surrender before jail authorities.
According to Bar & Bench, the convicts have sought extension of time due to ‘ill health’, ‘harvest of winter crops’, and ‘son’s marriage’.
Rahul Gandhi hails SC decision on Bilkis Bano case as ‘victory of justice’
The matter seeking extension of time was mentioned before a bench of Justices B V Nagarathana and Sanjay Karol on Thursday which asked the Registry to place the plea before CJI.
Last week, the Supreme Court quashed the Gujarat government’s decision, taken in August 2022, to prematurely release 11 convicts facing life term. It ordered all the convicts, who were released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022, back to jail within two weeks.
Bilkis Bano rape case witness seeks death penalty for convicts: ‘These men…’
In its 251-page judgment, the Supreme Court said the Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission of sentences and only the government of the state where the offenders were sentenced was competent to consider an application for remission and pass an order.
SC quashes remission granted to 11 convicts in Bilkis Bano case
‘Convicts should be hanged’
The only eyewitness in the Bilkis Bano case has said that the convicts must be hanged or jailed for the remainder of their lives and only then would justice be served.
The eyewitness was seven when a mob attacked his cousin Bilkis Bano and other members in Limkheda taluka of Gujarat’s Dahod district and killed 14 of them during 2002 Gujarat riots.
He is now 28 years old and lives in Ahmedabad with his wife and 5-year-old son.
Bilkis Bano case convicts remain ‘missing’; Dahod SP says ‘not incommunicado’
“I had endured the trauma of watching my loved ones being killed in front of my eyes. I still wake up in the night and scream as those moments haunt me even after all these years,” he said.
“All the convicts must be either hanged for or they must be kept behind bars for the remainder of their lives. Only then justice will be served. These men must never be set free again,” he asserted.
The boy spent some time in a relief camp in Godhra after the incident and was then shifted by him to a residential school in Kutch, said the activist who became his guardian and brought him up.
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Published: 18 Jan 2024, 10:53 AM IST
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