New Delhi, Aug 23 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to review a plea contesting the remission given to 11 who were found guilty of the murder and rape in the 2002 Bilkis Bano case. The plea was made by advocates Aparna Bhat and senior attorney Kapil Sibal before an apex court headed by Chief Justice N.V.Ramana.The counsel claimed that they were challenging the remission decision, and also emphasized that pregnant women were sexually assaulted and that victims were killed.
The bench questioned the counsel if they had been granted remission as a result of the top court’s decision.
Sibal said that the apex court had ordered the state to look into the issue, and they were contesting the remissionand not the highest court’s order.
The bench added, “we will see”.
Bhat demanded that the court set the issue for Wednesday.The bench said, “let us see the papers”.
Eleven convicts, sentenced life prison were released from Godhra sub-jail on the 15th of August when the Gujarat government granted the release of these prisoners under its Remission policy.The convicts served more than 15 years in prison.
In January 2008 the special CBI court in Mumbai had sentenced the convicts to life in prison for gang-rape and the murder of seven of the members of Bilkis Bano’s family.The Bombay High Court upheld their conviction.
Bano was 21 years old and was pregnant for five months when she was gang-raped as she fled the violence that broke out following the Godhra train caught fire.
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