Bilkis Bano case: Gujarat to apprise Supreme Court on departmental action against convicted cops

The apex court also asked the counsel for the rape survivor to file a separate appeal challenging a high court order on the issue of compensation.
Bilkis Bano, the victim of the gang rape during the Gujarat riots, interacts with media at a press conference in New Delhi. (PTI: File Photo)
Bilkis Bano, the victim of the gang rape during the Gujarat riots, interacts with media at a press conference in New Delhi. (PTI: File Photo)

NEW DELHI:  Questioning the Gujarat government, the Supreme Court Monday asked if any departmental action against the police officers, who were convicted in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case, has been taken and observed that the policemen should not be in service.A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud also allowed the gang-rape survivor to file a fresh appeal seeking enhancement of the compensation granted to her in the case that took place during the 2002 Gujarat riots.The Bombay High Court had fined each of the convicts `55,000 and directed that the money be paid to Bano by way of compensation. The court sought a report from the Gujarat government within four weeks on the departmental action.

During the brief hearing, the government said the police officers had served their sentence already but the court questioned the government’s move to reinstate them.The Bombay High Court had on May 4 upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of 12 people in the gang-rape case, while setting aside the acquittal of seven people, including policemen and doctors.

Bano was five months pregnant at the time of the incident and lost several of her family members in the riots. Six managed to escape.The bench had convicted seven persons, including five policemen and two doctors, for not performing their duties (sections 218) and tampering of evidence (section 201) under the Indian Penal Code.

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

Case file

Bilkis Bano, a 19-year-old girl and pregnant then, was gang-raped during the Gujarat riots on March 3, 2002. As many as 14 of her family members, including her three-year-old daughter, were killed by rioters near Ahmedabad.

She approached the police in Gujarat to lodge a complaint after she came to know about the identity of her assailants; the police filed an FIR, but without naming the rapists.

A judicial magistrate ‘closed’ the case based on a report by the Gujarat police who cited ‘inconsistencies’ in Bano’s version, in March 2003.

In Dec 2003, the SC handed over the case to the CBI after it emerged that the state CID had started harassing Bano and her kin.

After the CBI arrested 12 people in the case in 2004, they were convicted and given life term by a trial court in Mumbai in January 2008.

On May 4 this year, the Bombay High Court upheld the life sentence by the trial court to 11 convicts. The court also directed each of the convicts to pay adequate compensation to the victim.

Bano later approached the Supreme Court and sought higher compensation than the convicts were asked to pay.

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