The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the conviction of an IPS officer in the sensational 2002 Bilkis Bano case. A vacation bench of Justices AK Sikri and Deepak Gupta said that there is no urgency for hearing the matter as the convicted officer has already undergone the sentence.
The bench, however, listed the matter for hearing in the second week of July, observing the fine is of Rs 15,000 only. IPS officer RS Bhagora, currently serving in Gujarat, has been convicted along with four other policemen by the Bombay High Court recently, after the trial court had acquitted them. The counsel appearing for Bhagora said if the conviction is not stayed, then he will be terminated from the service as per service rules.
On 4 May, the Bombay High Court had reversed the trial court verdict acquitting Bhagora and others. The court upheld the conviction of 11 people (one convict is dead) in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case.
Along with five policemen, two doctors were also convicted by the High Court under section 218 (not performing their duties) and section 201 (tampering of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
According to the prosecution, on 3 March, 2002, Bilkis Bano's family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra riots and seven members of her family were killed.
Bilkis, who was five months pregnant at the time, was gang raped while six other members of her family managed to escape from the mob.
The trial in the case began in Ahmedabad. However, after Bilkis expressed apprehensions that witnesses could be harmed and the CBI evidence tampered, the Supreme Court transferred the case to Mumbai in August 2004.
The convicts had challenged the order on three main grounds.
- All evidence in the case was fabricated by the CBI.
- Bilkis gave birth to a child after the incident, thus, the same proved that she could not have been gang raped.
- The failure to find the bodies of some of her family members proves that they were not killed.
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