Bilkis Bano rape case: VHP greets released convicts with garlands in Gujarat

Bilkis Bano's family members were attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village in Limkheda taluka of the Dahod district during the post-Godhra riots on March 3, 2002.

TN National Desk

Updated Aug 17, 2022, 19:19 IST

People convicted for rape and murder in the Bilkis Bano case of the 2002 post-Godhra riots, come out of the Godhra sub-jail after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy

Photo : PTI

Godhra: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Wednesday greeted released convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case with garlands at its office in Gujarat. Pictures emerged on social media where convicts were seen in garlands and being greeted by VHP members.

It should be noted that all the eleven convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2002 post-Godhra Bilkis Bano gang rape case walked out of the Godhra sub-jail after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy on Monday.

Bilkis Bano's family members were attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village in Limkheda taluka of the Dahod district during the post-Godhra riots on March 3, 2002.

Bilkis Bano, who was five months pregnant at that time, was gang-raped and seven members of her family were killed. Six other members managed to run away, the court was told.

The accused in the case were arrested in 2004.

The trial began in Ahmedabad. However, after Bilkis Bano expressed apprehensions that witnesses could be harmed and the evidence collected by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) tampered with, the Supreme Court transferred the case to Mumbai in August 2004.

The special CBI court on January 21, 2008, sentenced the eleven accused to life imprisonment on the charge of gang rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano's family.

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