New Delhi: Bilkis Bano has received a big setback from the Supreme Court as it dismissed her review petition.
In this petition, Bilkis Bano had opposed the release of her convicts. Bano, in her plea, had challenged the early release of 11 people convicted for gang-raping her and killing her family members in 2002.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had refused to hear this petition early. Advocate Shobha Gupta, appearing for Bilkis Bano, requested a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha that another bench needs to be set up to hear the matter. To which CJI Chandrachujar had said, “The writ petition will be listed. Please don’t mention the same thing over and over again.”
Bilkis Bano was gang-raped and seven members of her family were killed during the 2002 post-Godhra train burning riots.
At the time of the incident, Bano was 21 years old and was five months pregnant. On January 21, 2008, a special CBI court convicted and sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment. On August 15 this year, the Gujarat government had released all the convicts from jail.
The Gujarat government had commuted all life sentences to 14 years under the 1992 rules. Earlier, the convicts had earlier approached the Bombay High Court against the sentence, but the High Court dismissed the petition of the convicts. Then they all approached the apex Court, where their petition was also dismissed.