After the brutality of the grisly 2002 gang rape and murder, Bilkis Bano first left her home town of Randhikpur in Gujarat, moving from one city to another before settling down in the tribal hamlet of Devgadh Barla, about 30km away. On Monday, as the nation’s eyes turned towards the 43-year-old again after she succeeded in sending her rapists back to jail, Bano was gone again forced to leave her home in potential fear of the consequences of the fractious verdict.

As evening fell, however, and the Supreme Court’s judgment scrapping the controversial remission granted to 11 men convicted of gang rape and murder made national headlines, Bano finally spoke up.

“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,” the gang rape survivor said in a statement issued by her advocate Shobha Gupta.

“This is what justice feels like. 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,” she said.

Bano recalled how the convicts were released on Independence Day two years ago, and thanked ordinary people for standing in solidarity with her.

“A year-and-a-half ago, on August 15, 2022, when those who had destroyed my family and terrorised my very existence were given an early release, I simply collapsed. I felt I had exhausted my reservoir of courage. Until a million solidarities came my way. Thousands of ordinary people and women of India came forward. They stood with me, spoke for me, and filed PIL (public interest litigation) petitions in the Supreme Court,” Bano said in her note.

“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. To each of these people, my gratitude for your precious solidarity and strength. You gave me the will to struggle, to rescue the idea of justice not just for me, but for every woman in India. I thank you,” she added.

Bano and her family, including her husband and four children, relocated from Devgadh Baria to an undisclosed location days before the Supreme Court verdict. “Bano never returned to her native Randhikpur where the gruesome violence took place. She stayed for a year in Devgadh Baria and then moved to different parts of the state and country. She again started living in Devgadh Baria when the convicts were released… Now for the last 12-15 days, she left Devgadh Baria and moved elsewhere,” said her uncle Abdul Razzak Mansuri, a witness in the gang rape case.

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He said he was happy to learn that justice was served.

“These 11 convicts were handed the punishment by a Maharashtra court. The Gujarat government’s decision to release them was wrong. That is why we challenged it in court. I am happy that the top court has quashed the Gujarat government’s decision and asked the convicts to surrender. I feel that we have received justice today,” he added.

Bano was three months pregnant when she was gang raped. Her three-year-old daughter was among seven of her relatives who were murdered during the riots, which left 1,000 people, many of them Muslims, dead.

The past 16 months, Bano struggled with trauma and mental stress, her relatives said. Bano – who lives with her husband, three daughters and a son – largely lived out of a suitcase, moving from one house to another to avoid any confrontation , they said.

Bano’s husband has been grappling with the challenges of securing steady employment, resulting in financial strain for the family. The education of their children has also taken a severe hit, forcing them to discontinue their studies. Community members have been giving financial support to the family.

“I was barely seven years old. Witnessing the atrocities inflicted upon my cousin sister and other family members left a lasting imprint on my young mind. Even now, those distressing images are vividly etched in my memory,” said Saddam Sheikh, Bano’s 29-year-old cousin and one of the two surviving eyewitnesses in the case. The other is Bano herself.

“The news of the convicts being released by the Gujarat government made me shake with fear. I remember shedding tears out of sheer apprehension,” he added. “The thought of them being incarcerated once more brings me some relief. But I find it very difficult to convince myself that they may not be free again.” Bano, in her statement, said: “I have said before, and I say again today, a journey 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.”

As the news of the Supreme Court’s verdict flashed on television screens, some of Bano’s relatives in Devgadh Baria burst firecrackers.