Bilkis Bano Case: Rahul Gandhi welcomed the Apex court verdict on the Bilkis Bano case that quashes the Government of Gujarat’s order to allow the early release of 11 convicts in the case. The opposition said it was a victory of justice and accused the BJP of being anti-women and “patronising criminals”.

SUPREME COURT RULING:

In a recent move, the Supreme Court of India on Monday blew at the Gujarat government by cancelling the previous order by the state which released the 11 convicts of raping Bilkis Bano and killing seven of her family members during the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat. The court ruled that the Gujarat government was “not competent enough” to pass such an order.

The Supreme Court also added that the documents shown to them by the convicts to obtain its 2022 order, which allowed the 11 men to approach the Gujarat government for their premature release were “fraud” and sought through “misleading facts”.

All the convicts were asked to surrender before jail authorities within two weeks were released by the government of Gujarat. As per media reports, the victim, Bilkis Bano, was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in Gujarat on March 3, 2002. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.

Along with Rahul his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too reacted to the verdict and said justice had ultimately prevailed.

“With this order, the veil over the anti-women policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been removed. After this, public confidence in the justice system will be further strengthened. Congratulations to Bilkis Bano for continuing her fight bravely,” she said in a post on ‘X’ previously twitter.

Congress’ spokesperson Pawan Khera also jumped in the case and tweeted on X, (twitter). He said, “It is a slap on the face of those who facilitated the illegal release of these criminals and also those who garlanded the convicts and fed sweets to them, by bulldozing justice.”