Image Source: Wikimedia
Delhi, Jan 08: India’s Supreme Court has overturned the early release of 11 Hindu men convicted of the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her relatives during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat. Bano, who is now in her forties, was five months pregnant at the time of the gang rape. Rejecting their plea for protection of liberty, the top court today directed the 11 men to surrender to the prison authorities in Gujarat within two weeks.
The court emphasized that allowing them to remain free would not be in line with the rule of law. Bilkis Bano lost seven relatives, including her three-year-old daughter, in the violent incident in Gujarat’s Dahod district in which, seven of the 14 people murdered in one incident were Bano’s relatives, including her three-year-old daughter, whose head was smashed on the ground by the perpetrators in Gujarat’s Dahod district
The move to send the convicts back to jail is seen as a reassertion of the Supreme Court’s authority, according to former Additional Solicitor General of India Indira Jaising.