Bilkis Bano Gangrape Convict in Reply to SC Says 'Plea Has No Maintainability'

The counter affidavit mentions that the process of their release followed all orders given by the apex court.

Since the release of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano Case, there's an uneasy tension in Randhikpur — a small village in Gujarat's Dahod district where a mob comprising the convicts gangraped Bano and murdered 14 members of her family in 2002. 

(Photo: Himanshi Dahiya/Edited by Deeksha Malhotra/The Quint)

After the remission of one of the eleven convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case was challenged, a counter-affidavit was filed by him before the Supreme Court on Saturday, 24 September.

The counter affidavit has challenged the plea's maintainability and regarded the decision of their remission as 'justified'. It has also highlighted that their release followed all the orders the apex court gave.

In the response, the convict has also said that a third party would not have a locus standi in a criminal case and that the petition against their remission is a politically motivated move. 

These eleven convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment after they raped and assaulted a five-month pregnant Bilkis Bano after the Godhra violence in 2002. However, all of them walked free after a committee took a unanimous decision in favour of their remission.

This came after the Supreme Court deemed the Gujarat government appropriate to decide their release and had given them two months for the same.

The release of these convicts fuelled the debate on women's security across the country and created outrage—opposition party leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, and K.T.Rama Rao came down heavily on PM Narendra Modi and the Gujarat government.