Bilkis Bano Verdict Holds Government Accountable by Sending Rapists Back to Jail

The Supreme Court has listed out, in detail, the multiple facts that were 'suppressed' and 'misrepresented'.

(Photo: Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

Video Producer: Aparna Singh

Video Editor: Puneet Bhatia

Cameraperson: Ribhu Chatterjee

“…Abuse of power.”

“..Misrepresenting and suppressing facts.”

“…Playing fraud on this Court.”

It is still sinking in that the Supreme Court of India actually chose to use such harsh words to describe the actions of Gujarat’s BJP-ruled state government.

When have we heard the apex court spell out in a judgment that an elected state government and 11 rape and murder convicts were “complicit” and had “acted in tandem” in misleading the court? When has a state government been accused of practically lying under oath?

Rarely, if ever.

Equally shocking, is why the Gujarat government did this, that is, facilitating the release of these 11 men from jail – men guilty of gangraping Bilkis Bano, who was pregnant at the time, and killing 14 of her family members, including her mother and two-year-old daughter, in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Except, as the Supreme Court has now ruled, the state of Gujarat had no right to offer them remission, pardon them, and free them. It fraudulently “usurped the power” of the state of Maharashtra to do so – where the trial took place, and where the men were sentenced.

How SC was 'Misled' by the 11 Convicts and Gujarat Govt

The Supreme Court has listed out, in detail, the multiple facts that were “suppressed” and “misrepresented”, and spelled out how this “fraud” was jointly committed by the Gujarat government and the 11 convicts.

The verdict details how one of the convicts, Radheshyam Shah, failed to tell the Supreme Court that the Gujarat High Court had twice rejected his remission plea, and had instead told him to approach the Maharashtra government.

The Supreme Court added that Shah even failed to disclose that he had indeed applied for remission to the Maharashtra government, implying that he (and the other convicts) were aware, and had essentially understood, that they were required to place their appeal before the state government in Maharashtra.

Further, the convicts did not reveal to the Supreme Court that the Police Superintendent of Dahod, in Gujarat, where their crimes had been committed back in 2002, and the District Judge who had originally sentenced them to life imprisonment, had both advised against a pardon or a remission.

Additionally, all these facts were also suppressed by the lawyers of the state of Gujarat, leading the Supreme Court to say that the government and the convicts were “complicit” and had “acted in tandem.”

As a result, in May 2022, the Supreme Court erroneously passed an order that permitted the Gujarat government to decide on the remission of the 11 convicts who gang-raped Bilkis Bano and killed members of her family. It had even rejected her review petition challenging that order, in December 2022.

Bilkis Bano's Rapists Will Soon Be Back Where They Belong – in Jail

In fact, talking directly about Gujarat’s BJP-ruled government, the Supreme Court stated that the “Gujarat government had (previously) submitted before this court (SC) that the appropriate government was the State of Maharashtra”… a contention erroneously rejected by the Supreme Court.

But at that point, “…the State of Gujarat failed to file a review petition seeking a correction of this order. (If it had done so) this litigation would not have arisen at all.” Instead, by not filing a review petition, “the State of Gujarat usurped the State of Maharashtra's power and passed the remission order.”

The question we now need to ask is, why did the Gujarat government do this? Why did they undermine justice and democracy in this manner?

To understand this, take a look at the events that followed the pardon of these 11 convicts. On 15th August 2022, these men were given mithai, they were garlanded, cheered, and felicitated, as they emerged out of jail and in the days that followed. The date, 15th August, was carefully chosen.

Clearly, the idea was to project these men as both patriots and heroes of radical Hindutva. The BJP’s MLA from Godhara, CK Raulji, who was on the Gujarat government’s remission panel, even chose to describe these 11 convicted murderers and rapists as ‘sanskari Brahmins’.

And look at the timing – just three months before the Gujarat state elections in December 2022 – to claim credit for pardoning these men who had committed heinous crimes during Gujarat’s worst communal riots. This was majoritarian politics, divisive politics, the politics of polarisation on full display.

Yeh Jo India Hai Na… here, when an elected government, whose job is to frame laws, breaks those very laws and misleads our Supreme Court… it hurts our democracy.

But we hope the Supreme Court always has judges like Justices Nagarathna and Bhuyan, to get it right. They have shown how governments can held accountable in a true democracy, as they should be. Meanwhile, Bilkis Bano must surely be relieved, knowing her attackers will soon be back where they belong – in jail.