Bilkis Bano: SC Dismisses Petition Against Release Of 11 Rape-Murder Convicts

A CBI court had sentenced 11 men to life on charges of gang rape and murder of seven members of Bano's family.

Image used for representation only.

(Photo: The Quint)

The Supreme Court on Saturday, 17 December, dismissed one of two petitions filed by Bilkis Bano against the release of 11 men who raped her and killed several members of her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The note, signed by the Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court merely says that her review petition filed in the apex court was dismissed on 13 December 2022.

(Photo: The Quint)

On 21 January 2008, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai sentenced 11 men to life imprisonment on charges of gang rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano's family.

The mob had gang-raped Bano while she was pregnant in March 2002, and killed seven members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter, amidst the Godhra riots.

On 15 August earlier this year, all. 11 convicts walked out of the Godhra sub-jail after the government of Gujarat approved their release under its remission policy.

Visuals of them walking free surfaced on social media after their release, which showed them being felicitated, as locals touched their feet, offered them sweets, and conducted a tilak ceremony.

Speaking to The Quint, 45-year-old Yakub Rasool, the husband of Bilkis Bano, said that they "have faith in the highest court of this country. They've done justice before, they'd do justice again."