Rights groups decry release of 11 convicts in gang rape, murder case in India

NEW DELHI (AA) – Human rights groups and Muslim representatives expressed outrage on Tuesday over the release of 11 men serving life sentences for gang rape and murder during the 2002 Gujarat riots, which killed around 2000 people, the majority of whom were Muslims.

The 11 convicts in the case of gang rape survivor Bilkis Bano were released from jail on Monday in Gujarat, India’s western state, after the authorities approved their appeal for “remission of sentence.”

On March 3, 2002, Bilkis Bano was gang raped, and 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter Saleha, were massacred by a mob in the Limkheda area of Dahod district.

According to the court’s verdict, Saleha died when her head was pounded on the ground. Bano was 21 at the time and five months pregnant. She survived the carnage by pretending to be dead and then losing consciousness.

Bano later told prosecutors that the 11 men convicted were from her neighborhood.

Gujarat is the home state of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the state’s chief minister at the time and has been accused of helping the mobsters.

Raj Kumar, a top official in Gujarat state, told local daily The Indian Express that the application for remission filed by the 11 convicts was considered due to the “completion of 14 years” in jail and other factors such as “age, nature of the crime, behavior in prison and so on.”

Women’s rights campaigners and Muslim representatives have slammed the government’s decision.

Niyaz Farooqui, secretary of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, India’s largest socio-religious Muslim organization, has criticized the decision.

‘Wrong signal’

“This gives a wrong signal. Following all the legal procedures, justice was delivered to the victims, and now the convicts have been released. What message would it send?” he said, adding that the convicts “should not have been released under these circumstances.”

The All India Progressive Women’s Association has issued a statement criticizing the government.

“The conviction of communal killers and rapists is after all an aberration in India, not the rule. Does the remission intend to restore the rule of impunity for communal killers and rapists!” it said.

‘Emboldening rapists’

“Today it has become commonplace for Hindu supremacists to openly give calls for genocide and rape of Muslims – without any consequences. The decision to free Bilkis Bano’s rapists emboldens such men and their followers to act on their threats,” it added.

Shamshad Pathan, a Gujarat-based advocate who has represented victims of the 2002 riots, told Anadolu Agency that the ruling is a huge disappointment.

“Legally and morally it is not correct,” he said, adding that the victims had fought a lengthy battle and had faith in the system. However, the victim has been greatly disappointed by this choice, he said.

He stated that life imprisonment for serious offences entails serving the rest of one’s life in jail. In the country, life convictions often involve a 14-year prison sentence.

In 2008, a special Central Bureau of Investigation court convicted 13 accused in the case and sentenced 11 men to life in prison on gang rape and murder counts.

After a 17-year legal battle, the Indian Supreme Court ordered the Gujarat government in 2019 to pay to gang-rape survivor Bilkis Bano 5 million Indian rupees (then approximately $63,000), a job, and accommodation – the first such order in the Gujarat riots case.