New Delhi, Aug 17 : Senior Congress leader P.Chidambaram, reacting to a clip showing prisoners in Bilkis Bano feeling “welcomed” in Gujarat, declared the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to people to be respectful of women is “merely words” and the Gujarat government’s decision is an “action”.People will associate the “word” with the “action”, he added.
“Hours following the Prime Minister’s call to the public to respect women and his carefully selected Gujarat government grants the remission of the sentence remaining to people who are who are convicted of gang sexual assault,” Chidambaram said, adding “Did the Prime Minister not know about the planned decision of the Gujarat government? .”
All 11 convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case as well as the murder of seven members of her family left on Monday of Godhra sub-jail, after the Gujarat government granted their release as part of its Remission policy.
A special CBI court in Mumbai had sentenced the accused to life in prison on the charges of murder and gang-rape of seven of the members of Bilkis Bano’s family on January 21, 2008.
The Bombay High Court had later confirmed their conviction.
As per reports, the inmates been held for over 15 years in prison and one of them come to the Supreme Court with a plea for early release, which was granted.
The supreme court had directed the Gujarat government to study the issue of the possibility of remission.
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