Tag: Remission Norms

Remission To Bilkis Rapist

‘Remission to Rapists Shouldn’t Have Been Granted in the First Place’

By LokMarg

Swati Goswami, an Ahmedabad-based writer and human rights activist, says the Bilkis Bano case is a glaring example of how the BJP operates to skirt the law. Her views

Rape is an act of vengeance and violence against an individual’s refusal, or, against the identity of a community. Remission of rapists without the consent of the victim/survivor is a fraud. Just like a rapist misuses physical power, the State misused its power brazenly to remit the rapists and murderers of Bilkis Bano and her family.

Was Bilkis consulted before remitting her 11 rapists? Did the convicts apologise and plead forgiveness for their heinous crimes? The answer is an emphatic NO. With the power to remit comes the responsibility to involve the survivor for reformative justice. Remission has to be reasonable, which in this case is far from reality. What if the convicts had tried to harm the family again? Who would have been responsible? If a misleading writ petition can result in a two-judge bench changing the decision, how can we trust the judicial system?

I am extremely happy for Bilkis, her dogged resilience, her strength of character, and her undeservingly long and protracted struggle for justice. However, I won’t congratulate the Supreme Court for revoking the remission order because the remission should never have been permitted in the first instance! How could the remission plea be heard with such ignorance by the highest court of the land for such a horrific crime? How could they not know that the crime was a part of the widespread and vicious communal violence of 2002 in Gujarat, which has not only been a barbaric event in itself, but which has also resulted in what the country is paying for since 2014? The resulting social and communal polarization in Gujarat literally propelled Narendra Modi as the next chief minister yet again, and, eventually, as the prime minister of India.

The very reason this case was moved out of Gujarat was because a free and fair trial wouldn’t have been possible here. Then, how could the court take the government at face-value?

I won’t actually blame the Gujarat government because that is how the BJP operates. That is why the case was moved to Maharashtra. The Gujarat riots and its modus-operandi, targeting one community, are well documented — that is why Bilkis was raped and her family killed.

We expect no sensitivity and justice from them. However, the judges, as the final custodians of justice, what were they thinking? This is about a gang-rape survivor, her little child who was smashed to death, her murdered family and her entire community! Where is the seriousness of the law? 

Are we to believe that a pregnant gang-rape survivor will not get justice unless five other women file separate petitions? Bilkis moved the court against the remission after one of the convict’s challenged the other petitions by “complete strangers”. Why should she fight alone? It was not a personal crime. It was a social crime with the BJP brass as its naked back-dancers — performing in front of the whole country.

The story of Bilkis is not a women’s issue, even though only women came forward to undo the injustice. It is about the ugly binaries of this country, especially in the contemporary era. 

ALSO READ: ‘Bilkis Banop’s Rapists Were Lionized’

Bilkis won, not once but twice, against the highest level of political, communal and patriarchal violence. What she managed to achieve is incredible, especially as a Muslim woman in India, especially in such bleak and difficult times. I cannot even begin to imagine her rage at the sight of her rapists being felicitated or called ‘Sanskari’. Bilkis stood firm against the entire might of the political system and fought each time it tried to violate her.

And we must not forget her husband, Yakub, who stood by her throughout the unimaginable trauma. In a society, where men rarely stand against their own families for their wives, Yakub is a role model as he stood against a mighty government. For a Muslim man in India to show such courage against decades-long State-backed injustice is laudable.

Some of us had met him after the rapists were released. He mentioned how intimidating their Whatsapp status and indirect but intentional conversations were. He feared for the safety of Bilkis and his family. Some Muslim families had started moving out in fear of another round of violence following the remission. Such is the nature of this crime! It was both traumatic and enraging to see Yakub in tears. 

Finally, they won. Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan have proved that the Supreme Court can choose dignified commitment to justice. The apex court cannot bring back her family and undo her trauma, but Bilkis Bano can finally move on. It should never have taken this long to rebuild her life. Indeed. I wish every woman in India the — ‘Bilkis strength’ — but never her trauma! 

The narrator has focused on gender violence and human rights violations in Kashmir and other ‘occupied’ zones.

As told to Amit Sengupta

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Bilkis Bano Rapists Released

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

By LokMarg

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.