Bilkis Bano's Rapists Release Cancelled By Supreme Court: A Case Timeline

On March 3, 2002, Bilkis Bano's family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra riots.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old - five months pregnant - when she was raped and her toddler daughter killed along with six others from the family in Dahod district of Gujarat.

The trial in the case initially began in Ahmedabad. However, after Bilkis Bano expressed apprehensions that the witnesses could be harmed and the CBI evidence tampered with, the Supreme Court transferred the case to Mumbai in August 2004.

A special court had on 21 January, 2008 convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 11 men for raping Bilkis and murdering seven of her family members, while acquitting seven persons including the policemen and doctors. The decision was later upheld by the Bombay High Court.

In 2019, the Supreme Court even directed the Gujarat government to give her Rs 50 lakh as compensation, besides a house and a job.

The convicts walked free on Independence Day in 2022 under an outdated remission policy of the Gujarat government, setting off a huge political controversy.

Ms Bano approached the Supreme Court in November 2022 challenging what she called "premature" release of the 11 convicts by the state government. She said the remission of sentence has "shaken the conscience of society".

Besides the petition filed by Bilkis Bano, several other Public Interest Litigations or PILs had challenged the rapists' early release in the Supreme Court.

While cancelling the release of 11 convicts, the Supreme Court today said the Gujarat government was not "competent" to release the men.

The men will have to return to jail within two weeks, the top court said today.