Bilkis Bano's rapists released Archives - Lokmarg

Bilkis’ Rapists Release Case: Justice Bela Recuses From Hearing

By LokMarg 13th December 2022

Justice Bela M Trivedi, Supreme Court judge, on Tuesday, recused herself from hearing the plea filed by Bilkis Bano, challenging the pre-mature release of 11 convicts, who had gang-raped her and murdered her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots.

A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi said the matter be posted before another bench.
Besides filing a petition against the per-mature release of convicts, Bano has also filed a review petition seeking its earlier order by which it had asked the Gujarat government to consider the plea for the remission of one of the convicts.

The review petition was also listed for hearing today before Justice Rastogi in his camber.

As per procedures, review pleas against top court judgments are decided in chambers by circulation by the judges who were part of the judgment under review.

She has filed a review plea against the May order of the Supreme Court which allowed the Gujarat government to apply the 1992 remission Rules.

Bilkis said that even being the victim of the crime, she had no clue about any such process of remission or premature release initiated.

Gujarat’s remission order is a mechanical order of remission by completely ignoring the law requirement as consistently laid down, the plea said.

Earlier, some PILs were filed seeking directions to revoke the remission granted to 11 convicts.

The pleas were filed by the National Federation of Indian Women, whose General Secretary is Annie Raja, Member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, social activist and professor Roop Rekha Verma, and TMC MP Mahua Moitra.

Gujarat government in its affidavit had defended remission granted to convicts saying they completed 14 years of sentence in prison and their “behaviour was found to be good”.

The State government said it has considered the cases of all 11 convicts as per the policy of 1992 and remission was granted on August 10, 2022, and the Central government also approved the ore-mature release of convicts.

It is pertinent to note that the remission was not granted under the circular governing grant of remission to prisoners as part of the celebration of “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”, it has said.

The affidavit stated, “State government considered all the opinions and decided to release 11 prisoners since they have completed 14 years and above in prisons and their behaviour was found to be good.”

The government had also questioned the locus standi of petitioners who filed the PIL challenging the decision saying they were outsiders to the case.

The pleas said they have challenged the order of competent authority of the government of Gujarat by way of which 11 persons who were accused in a set of heinous offenses committed in Gujarat were allowed to walk free on August 15, 2022, pursuant to remission being extended to them.

The remission in this heinous case would be entirely against public interest and would shock the collective public conscience, as also be entirely against the interests of the victim (whose family has publicly made statements worrying for her safety), pleas stated.

The Gujarat government released the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, on August 15. All the 11 life-term convicts in the case were released as per the remission policy prevalent in Gujarat at the time of their conviction in 2008.

In March 2002 during the post-Godhra riots, Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter. She was five months pregnant when rioters attacked her family in Vadodara. (ANI)

Stan Swamy Dies In Jail, Rapists Are Released! Welcome To New India

By LokMarg 30th August 2022

Kavita Srivastava, national secretary of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties, says remission granted to Bilkis Bano’s rapists was premeditated

It is outrageous, both in law and morally. Procedurally, the question of remission should have gone to the Maharashtra State, where the trial happened. The Supreme Court in 2016 had established it in the union of India vs V. Sriharan, which the Gujarat High Court had relied upon, when one of the convicted, Lala Vakil, in the ‘Bilkis Bano gang rape and murder of her family case’, had moved court for premature release.

The SC, in its May order too, had not pronounced the remission — it had only asked the Gujarat government to consider it. The constitution of the committee, with the non-official members being BJP leaders, including elected representatives, further establishes that at every step, the stage was set for the release of the convicted. Also, the permission of the presiding judge, who convicted the accused, was not sought. That should ideally have been the Mumbai trial court which sentenced the 11 accused in 2013.

Since the CBI had investigated the case, it is also clear in law that the Gujarat government should have consulted the central government in Delhi, since its opinion would be mandatory in the remission. Did the Gujarat government seek its opinion? It is time the Union Ministry of Home Affairs clarified this position.

Being a crime against humanity, there was no way that remission should have been granted. The revised guidelines of remission as listed in 2014 are clear on this, but the Gujarat government, again making it easy for the convicts, decided to use the 1992 guidelines.

This aspect is what is chilling; that the survivor of rape and a witness of the murder of 14 people of her family, including three children, including her own 3-year-old daughter, is expected to live everyday with the killers and rapists (confirmed by court) living close by. Did the committee not see this aspect while upholding the remission?

ALSO READ: ‘Bilkis Lives In Fear, Her Rapists Being Lionized’

It is not that the women’s movement does not believe in the remission of those convicted against acts of violence against women. But this is unprecedented as there is no such example for remission for such a heinous crime. If the convicted were medically not well, or facing debilitating illnesses, or, simply could not take care of themselves, as was the case of Father Stan Swamy, there was still a cause for consideration. Father Stan was 83 and an under trial; he was not granted bail and denied even a sipper.

Or consider the case of 93-year-old Dr Habib, arrested on charges of terrorism, who could not even clean himself. The jail manual is clear that if the physical strength of the prisoner is reduced to half of what it was at the time of committing the crime, his case should be considered.

This has raised a new question for the women’s movement; that first we have to struggle for justice at every step, from the lodging of the FIR, fair investigation, filing of a proper charge sheet, and ensuring that good lawyers are available to fight it out in the trial court. The protracted trial itself becomes difficult when the woman has to speak her testimony in front of her own rapists. In the current circumstances, it is a signal that if at all the judgement does come in favour of the woman, it can be done away with a stroke by the executive if it wants to reverse it through remission.

The remission policy was a humanitarian dimension in our Constitution and criminal law, but to convert it for the sake of one party wanting to show that it has met the aspirations of the people by granting remission to Brahmins, as they are ‘sanskaris’, as stated by the MLA of the remission committee, shows that this dimension too can be abused. It adds to a terribly frightening scenario for Muslim women in particular, who are vulnerable to sexual violence in the present majoritarian and xenophobic times, even while the issue of hijab is still unsettled. Indeed, this is a big blow for Muslim women in India.

This example is clear — that in the contemporary, majoritarian times of the re-establishment of the chaturvarna system, through Brahminism, which is integral to the ideology of Hindutva, Muslims, Dalits, adivasis, and all women, will be affected. The Manu law will be re-established. All women will consequently face attacks and women’s rights will be violated encompassing all women across the spectrum.

Savarkar clearly said that the ‘othering’ of the women of the ‘enemy’ – read, the minorities, Muslims, Christians, communists, etc, – is acceptable and part of the struggle to make Bharat a Hindu Rashtra. Well, we are almost there. Indeed, historically, the contestation between communities always happens over women’s bodies! Surely, this is another kind of organised violence.

Five Things That Happened Last Week (And what to make of them)

By Sanjoy Narayan 28th August 2022

Release of 11 gang-rapists is as dastardly as their crime

Fifteen years after they were convicted for the brutal and horrific rape of a pregnant woman during the Gujarat riots of 2002, 11 men who were sentenced to life imprisonment, walked out of a prison in Godhra recently. Their release, ordered by the state government under an old remission policy dating back to1992, set off ripples of shock across India. But when the men, accused and found guilty of the heinous crime, walked out, they were welcomed by a bunch of people with garlands and sweets.

The incident sharpens the focus on two issues. First, it is how the authorities (read government) can brazenly use old laws and archaic provisions to serve purposes that are either politically motivated or communally discriminated against. And second, how the schism of divisiveness in Indian society has been constantly widening.

There has been widespread outrage against the release of the 11 men who were charged and accused of raping a young pregnant Muslim woman during the communal riots that rocked Gujarat in 2002, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of that state and his close aide and current Union home minister Amit Shah was the his home minister in the state.

The irony of the entire affair– the gang rape, the conviction of the accused and the more recent release of them from prison– is the fact that the woman who was the target of the 11 men who raped her has been constantly named in media reports and official accounts of the case. Everyone, including so-called liberal activists, have been repeating her name everywhere. Does anyone know the names of any of her accused and convicted rapists?

The other aspect of the release of the criminals is the provision of remission. Remission is an act of discretion that an executive authority such as a government of a state or the Centre can exercise. The problem is in the discretionary nature of that power. Discretion is something that has to be used with care. In this case, the state government that ordered the release of the men convicted of a dastardly crime has been used in wantonly.

Congress party should ditch the Gandhis

The only time the Congress party makes news is when negative things happen to it. When it loses elections in state after state it is news. When it fails to muster the requisite number of seats in the Lok Sabha to give it the status of being principal opposition party, it is news. When its dynastic leaders–the Gandhi family–is embroiled in financial scandal (as they have been recently) it is news.

Ao when Ghulam Nabi Azad, 73, and a veteran leader of the party, recently resigned from every post that he had held and the primary membership of the party, it was news that was, unsurprisingly, negative.

In his lengthy resignation letter, Azad, who has held several portfolios in the Union cabinet and has been chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir, has unambiguously charged Rahul Gandhi with “childish behaviour” and immaturity and of letting a “coterie of inexperienced sycophants” run the party.

Those charges are sharp but precise. But they are also too late. The Congress party has been in a state of collapse for a while. Run as a fief by the mother and son duo of Sonia and Rahul, the party and its saga have become a tragic comedy that has long back ceased to be even remotely funny.

While Azad’s departure marks the exit of a veteran leader, the Congress has been losing talented people in droves. The Gandhis clearly have little clue about how to fix the problem in their party. But then that is because they themselves are the problem.

Narendra Modi is a topper… again

Surveys and rankings are always exercises that are disputed. But they have always been popular as “click bait” news that people get drawn to. So, when Morning Consult, a global decision intelligence company, recently released a survey that put India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the top with a 75% approval rating, it caught all the eyeballs.

According to Morning Consult’s survey, Modi’s approval was higher than that of the US president Joe Biden who came fifth with a 41% approval rating and other leaders such as Canadian President Justin Trudeau at 39% and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at 38%.

While Modi’s detractors will fume and fret over a survey such as this and, as is known, surveys depend on the size and quality of the samples, the fact remains that on the Indian firmament, Modi is head and shoulders above any other political leader of his time.

Adani emerges on the media scene

Globally as well as in India, mainstream media groups have been struggling for a while. Many of them are closely held and not obliged to publicly reveal their financial status. The shift to online consumption of news and other content, which was followed by the decline of print and broadcasting advertising revenues has been the main reason for their plight.

In India, mainstream media is more dependent on advertising revenues than in other markets because subscription revenues have been historically low. This has meant that newsrooms across the country have witnessed downsizing and closures. It has also meant sellouts. And frequently, the buyers have been large business houses with big media ambitions often fuelled by a desire to burnish their image or wield influence on the political system and authorities.

Last week, Gautam Adani, India’s fastest rising billionaire (whose links with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi are well known) took a step towards buying up NDTV, one of the country’s most reputed media houses best known for its television news channel with independent views. Many perceive NDTV as one of the few mainstream media groups that are free of government influence and unafraid to critique the authorities. In that context, Adani’s takeover of the company seems ironic. Does it mean another one will soon bite the dust?

Four Indian women and a Mexican enter a parking lot

In a small Texas town named Piano (population 285,000) a drama unfolded in a parking lot outside a restaurant. Four Indian women, ostensibly naturalised US citizens, who were leaving the restaurant were accosted by a slightly-built woman who hurled racial slurs at them, telling them that they should go back to India. The incident became news because one of the Indian women recorded it on her phone and the clip became viral.

The accuser happened to be a Mexican-American who claimed on camera that she was born in the US and not naturalised like the Indian women, implying that she was superior to them.

Racism is rampant across the world and Indians often face the brunt of it. The problem often is one of assimilation and integration into cultures that are different. Economic strife, particularly in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, can sharpen the divisive animosity against immigrants. The video from Piano is perhaps just a small symptom of a more prevalent trend.