More than 6000 people have urged Supreme Court to sentence the 11 convicts who were released of the Bilkis Bano rape case.
Mumbai: The Supreme Court has been requested Demand To Reverse Bilkis Bano Convicts’ Release Has Over 6,000 Signatoriesby more than 6,000 people, including women, grass-roots activists, and human rights advocates, to remove the sentences that were commuted for 11 men who were found guilty of rape and murder in the 2002 Bilkis Bano case.
“The remission of sentences for the 11 men convicted of gang rape and mass murder will have a chilling effect on every rape victim who is told to ‘trust the system’, ‘seek justice’, and ‘have faith’,” they said in a joint statement.
Syeda Hameed, Zafarul-Islam Khan, Roop Rekha, Devaki Jain, Uma Chakravarti, Subhashini Ali, Kavita Krishnan, Maimoona Mollah, Hasina Khan, Rachana Mudraboyina, and Shabnam Hashmi were among the activists who made the statement. Saheli Women’s Resource Center, Gamana Mahila Samuha, Bebaak Collective, All India Progressive Women’s Association, Uttarakhand Mahila Manch, Forum Against Oppression of Women, Pragatisheel Mahila Manch, Parcham Collective, Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan, Amoomat Society, WomComMatters, Center for Struggling Women, and Sahiyar are a few of the civil rights organisations.
“We demand that women’s faith in justice be restored. We demand the remission of sentences for these 11 convicts be immediately revoked and they be sent back to prison to serve the remainder of their life terms,” the statement said.
The community demanded that the remission be ended because the early release of these murderers and rapists only served to increase the impunity of all males who rape women and commit other violent crimes.
On August 15, eleven life-sentenced convicts were released from Godhra Sub-Jail after the Gujarat government approved their release under its policy of pardoning. They’d spent more than 15 years behind bars.
On January 21, 2008, an extra-ordinary Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai sentenced 11 people to life in jail on accusations of gang rape and the murder of seven Bilkis Bano family members. The Bombay High Court later upheld their conviction.
When Bilkis Bano was gang-raped while attempting to escape the rioting that had broken out following the fire of the Godhra train, she was 21 years old and five months pregnant. Her 3-year-old daughter was one of those killed.
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