The affidavit submitted by the Gujarat government to the Supreme Court on a petition challenging the remission granted to the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case confirms the worst suspicions about the controversial release and validates all criticism of it. It contains shocking details of the special treatment given to the 11 rape-and-murder convicts, who were released from Godhra jail on August 15. A special CBI court had sentenced all of them to life imprisonment on the charges of the gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven members of her family, including an infant, in 2002. The defence and justifications of the Gujarat government’s decision to release them, including by the BJP and its supporters, have been proved false and brazen. It is also now known that the Centre had cleared the state government’s decision, but it has chosen to remain silent on the matter so far. Union Home Minister Amit Shah must explain to the nation on what grounds the clearance to release the 11 was given when the Centre’s own guidelines said that those convicted of heinous crimes such as rape were not to be given remission. Does not that standard apply in this case because the victims were a Muslim woman and her family, and the perpetrators were, as one BJP MLA said, “sanskari Brahmins”?
When the state government sought opinion from the relevant institutions on the proposal to release the 11, the CBI and the special CBI judge had opposed it. In the case of one convict, Radheshyam Shah, even the district authorities and the district judge had objected to his release. But it is clear that the government had already made up its mind to release them and had gone through the procedure only for form’s sake. It has come to light that the convicts had enjoyed over 1,000 days of parole and furlough, and in the case of one convict, Rameshbhai Chandana, he had spent more than five years out of jail. Some of them were guilty of overstaying their parole periods, yet they were given parole again and again. This only shows that the Gujarat government had all along treated Bilkis Bano’s rapists as privileged prisoners.
It has also come to light that some of them had committed offences even when they were out on parole. One of them, Mitesh Bhatt, was charge-sheeted for outraging the modesty of a woman in June 2020, but that somehow still qualified as “good behaviour” justifying remission in the eyes of the Gujarat government. There were complaints and cases against others too. The convicts were released ignoring all these violations and discarding all objections. It is clear that the Gujarat government’s decision was prejudiced and against justice and morality. It is a grievous wrong and should be corrected.