Mumbai: NCP leader Sharad Pawar urged the Maharashtra government on Tuesday to consider the Supreme Court’s ruling about the “heinous crime” and to treat the case of Bilkis Bano, who was gang raped and her seven family members killed in 2002, seriously.
On Monday, the Gujarat government’s remission of 11 convictions in the case was revoked by the Supreme Court, which also censured the state for being “complicit” with an accused party and misusing its discretion.
On Independence Day in 2022, all of the prisoners who had been prematurely freed were ordered to return to prison within two weeks.
The Gujarat government was chastised by the Supreme Court for having “usurped” the Maharashtra government’s authority to pardon the guilty.
Following Bilkis Bano’s expressed concerns about evidence manipulation and witness safety, the Gujarat High Court moved the case’s trial from Ahmedabad to Mumbai. The eleven convicted individuals in this case have the option to petition the Maharashtra government to have their sentences remitted.
“Given what the woman has gone through and the fact that seven members of her family were killed, I feel the Maharashtra government will take this case seriously,” Mr. Pawar stated at a news conference.
“I ask that you treat this matter with due diligence and bear in mind the rulings made by the Supreme Court about the perpetrators of this horrible murder. Pawar stated that the home minister and chief minister of Maharashtra ought to treat this matter seriously.
He said, “The government should make a decision that sends a message that these kinds of crimes are not acceptable in society.”
When Bilkis Bano, then twenty-one, was raped in February 2002, she was five months pregnant and running from the horror of the communal rioting that had broken out following the Godhra train burning tragedy. Her daughter, age three, was one of the seven members of the family that perished.