Bilkis Bano's Plea Against Rapists' Release In Supreme Court On Tuesday

The Supreme Court will hear Bilkis Bano's plea challenging the remission and release of 11 convicts in the 2002 case related to her gangrape and murder of seven members of her family on December 13. 

The plea will be listed before a bench led by Justice Ajay Rastogi. Bano, in two separate petitions, had challenged the early release of the convicts by the Gujarat government on August 15. 

Bano was 21 and five-month pregnant when she was gangraped during the 2002 Gujarat riots that followed the Godhra train burning incident. Bano's three-year-old daughter was also among the seven members of her family who were killed.

"The decision to once again stand up and knock on the doors of justice was not easy for me. For a long time, after the men who destroyed my entire family and my life were released, I was simply numb. I was paralysed with shock and with fear for my children, my daughters, and above all, paralysed by loss of hope," she had said at the time of filing of the petitions. 

"But, the spaces of my silence were filled with other voices; voices of support from different parts of the country that have given me hope in the face of unimaginable despair; and made me feel less alone in my pain. I cannot express in words what this support has meant to me," she added.  

In October, the Gujarat government told the Supreme Court that it had Centre's approval for the release of the 11 convicts and also cited their "good behaviour".

However, contrary to the state government's claims, FIRs and police complaints accessed by NDTV show that the 11 convicts were accused of threatening and harassing witnesses while out on parole. Between 2017-2021, at least four witnesses in the case registered complaints and FIRs against the convicts.