Kochi: The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the Gujarat government order freeing 11 persons convicted for life term for gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her kin during the 2002 riots in Gujarat, media reports said.
The Apex Court delivered the verdict while hearing a batch of petitions challenging Gujarat government’s decision in 2022.
The Apex Court directed the convicts to surrender before the jail authorities in Gujarat within a fortnight.
Bano was five months pregnant when she was raped during the communal clashes that erupted after a train carrying pilgrims from Ayodhya was torched on February 27, 2002,
in 2002 killing 58 pilgrims. This triggered communal clashes across the state that claimed over 1,000 lives.
The 11 men were convicted for Life Term in 2008. They were freed by the rightist BJP Gujarat government in August 2022 on the basis of the prison recommending their release for their good conduct.
Narendra Modi who was the Gujarat Chief Minister then went on to become Prime Minister and his party has been in power for the last one decade. Modi was cleared of complicity in the violence by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court of India in 2012.
