NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the conviction of an IPS officer in the 2002 Bilkis Bano case stating there is no urgency in hearing the case.
A vacation bench of Justices AK Sikri and Deepak Gupta said that the convicted officer has already undergone the sentence and posted the case for hearing in the second week of July.
RS Bhagora was one of the five cops whose acquittal by the trial court was set aside by the
Bombay High Court which convicted them, along with two doctors, on charges of destroying evidence and attempting to shield the accused. Bhagora is currently serving in Gujarat.
Stressing for urgent hearing, Bhagora’s counsel said if the conviction is not stayed, then he will be terminated from the service as per rules.
The Bombay High Court had on May 4 reversed the trial court verdict acquitting Bhagora and others and had upheld the conviction of 11 people (one convict is dead) in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case.
Along with five policemen, two doctors were also convicted by the High court.
The High Court had held that policemen and doctors had fudged medical examination records and post-mortem reports when a probe began into the incident.
According to the prosecution, on March 3, 2002, Bilkis Bano’s family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra riots and seven members of her family were killed.
Bilkis, who was five months pregnant at the time, was gang raped while six other members of her family managed to escape from the mob.