India\u2019s top court on Monday reversed a state government\u2019s decision to release 11 men convicted of gang-raping a pregnant Muslim woman during Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002, and ordered for them to be sent back to jail. <\/p>\n
The men were part of a Hindu mob sentenced to life in prison for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano, who was 21 years old and pregnant at the time. The same mob killed 14 members of her family, including her 3-year-old daughter. <\/p>\n
They were released in August 2022 after serving 14 years of their sentence following a decision made by an advisory panel set up by the Gujarat state government, which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). <\/p>\n
But on Monday, India\u2019s Supreme Court quashed that decision and ordered the men to report back to prison authorities\u00a0within two weeks. <\/p>\n
The Gujarat government was \u201clacking in competency\u201d to pass the remission orders as the trial and sentencing happened in Maharashtra state, the court ruled. The court slammed the Gujarat government for abusing its discretionary powers in releasing the 11 convicts without authority. <\/p>\n
Bano welcomed the ruling saying she \u201cwept tears relief\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d she said in a statement. <\/p>\n
When the convicts were released on remission in August 2022, Bano said she felt she had \u201cexhausted her reservoir of courage\u201d but she then found strength in the solidarity that came her way from thousands of people across the country. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou 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,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The move was celebrated by supporters of Bano, who had decried the men\u2019s release as an attack not only on Muslims but women\u2019s rights in a country where government data shows a woman is raped every 17 minutes. <\/p>\n
\u201cRule of law has been restored by this judgment.\u00a0Many Congratulations to Bilkis and to all of us who stood by her and fought for her,\u201d said Shobha Gupta, Bano\u2019s lawyer, on Monday after the ruling. <\/p>\n
Aparna Bhat, an advocate for one of the petitioners of the case, also praised the ruling. \u201cWe really salute the judges who interpreted the whole provision of the law and for categorically directing that the accused should surrender,\u201d Bhat said. \u201cThis was an extraordinary case and a phenomenal judgment by the Supreme Court.\u201d <\/p>\n
The crimes committed against Bano took place in February 2002 when centuries-old divisions erupted in Gujarat between the majority Hindus and the minority Muslim community. <\/p>\n
It was one of India\u2019s worst religious riots, leading to the deaths of more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims. <\/p>\n
An inquiry found Modi \u2013 then Gujarat\u2019s chief minister \u2013 wasn\u2019t to blame for the riots. <\/p>\n
Bano would later tell the court the men ran toward them with swords, sticks and sickles. According to court documents, one grabbed her young daughter and smashed her on the ground. Three men raped her, while the others attacked her sisters, aunts and their daughters. She fell unconscious and woke hours later, surrounded by bodies. <\/p>\n
In 2008, after a high-profile trial, her attackers were sentenced to life in prison for rape and murder. But\u00a0in August 2022,\u00a0the state government granted them remission under a provision in India\u2019s Code of Criminal Procedure that allows prisoners to be freed once they serve 14 years. <\/p>\n
The decision sparked outrage across India, with protests held in support of Bano from Kolkata to Mumbai. Critics claimed the decision to release the men was tainted by politics, misogyny and religious discrimination. <\/p>\n\n
India\u2019s top court on Monday reversed a state government\u2019s decision to release 11 men convicted of gang-raping a pregnant Muslim woman during Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002, and ordered for them to be sent back to jail. The men were part of a Hindu mob sentenced to life in prison for the gang rape of Bilkis <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}