MLC Kavitha urges Supreme Court to ‘undo injustice’ done to Bilkis Bano

Hyderabad: A day after requesting the Supreme Court to intervene and take immediate action against release of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case of 2002 Gujarat riots, TRS MLC K Kavitha on Friday penned her predicament to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and urged the Apex Court to intervene in allowing the rapists […]

Hyderabad: A day after requesting the Supreme Court to intervene and take immediate action against release of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case of 2002 Gujarat riots, TRS MLC K Kavitha on Friday penned her predicament to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and urged the Apex Court to intervene in allowing the rapists to walk out freely of Godhra sub-jail.

She urged the Chief Justice and the Supreme Court to ‘undo the injustice’ and ‘save the nation’s faith in laws of the land and in humanity’ by revoking the release of the convicts.

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In her letter to the CJI, Kavitha emphasised the need for the Supreme Court to intervene and restore justice to Bilkis Bano. She stated that crimes like rape shake the very core of the social conscience. “Seeing convicted rapists walk out freely on a day such as the Independence Day sends shivers down the spine of every citizen especially women who places their faith in the laws of the land and the justice system of the country,” she said.

The legislator highlighted relevant technical and legal points, stating that the role of the union government in the release of the convicts was unclear while casting aspersions on whether the procedural and substantive checks were taken into account while releasing the 11 convicts.

She questioned the release of the convicts on the basis of a 1992 policy, while the Gujarat government’s revised policy of 2014 would have made them ineligible for remission. She reminded that the 1992 policy of the Gujarat government was substituted by the 2014 policy to align the remission policy of the State government with the judgement of the Supreme Court dated November 20, 2022. “It is not clear whether the aforesaid procedural and substantive checks were taken into account while releasing the 11 convicts,” she observed.

Kavitha further added that the case was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Special CBI Court sentenced these convicts. “Section 435 (1) (a) of the CrPC states that the power of the State government to remit or commute a sentence in any case which was investigated by the CBI shall not be exercised by the State government, except after consultation with the Central government,” she said and pointed out that whether the release of the 11 convicts, in this case, was done in consultation with the Central government was unclear.