CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: Over a week after 11 convicts serving life sentences in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case in Gujarat walked free following remission of their sentence, the first murmurs of disapproval from within the ruling BJP are becoming audible.
While Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday restricted his criticism to felicitating the accused upon their release, actor-politician Khushbu Sundar on Wednesday went full blast against the remission.
In a tweet, she wrote, “A woman who is raped, assaulted, brutalised and her soul scarred for life must get justice. No man who has been involved in it should go free. If he does so, it’s an insult to humankind and womanhood.”
She added that Bilkis or any other woman should be supported beyond politics and ideologies.
As for Fadnavis, he said,“The convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano case of Gujarat were released following a Supreme Court order. But it was wrong if a person accused of a crime is felicitated and there can be no justification for such an act.”
Fadnavis on Tuesday said the accused in the Bilkis Bano case in Gujarat should not have been garlanded.
While replying to the Opposition about the law and order situation, Fadnavis said they will try to sensitise police personnel about women victims.
“The accused should be treated as accused only,” he said.
“I will not defend this action of garlanding people who are accused in Bilkis Bano case in Gujarat. The court has relieved them. They even spent 14 years in jail for their crime. But no one can defend the accused,” Fadnavis added.
"The accused have been freed after completing nearly 20 years. 14 years in jail. The release has been done after a Supreme Court order. But it is wrong if any accused is felicitated and welcomed. An accused is an accused and there can be no justification for this (act)," said Fadnavis, who is also the home minister.
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On August 15, all the 11 convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in the case of Bilkis Bano's gang rape and murder of her seven family members during the 2002 communal riots walked out of the Godhra sub-jail after the BJP government in Gujarat allowed their premature release under its remission policy.
They were welcomed with garlands following their release from jail.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose MLAs were on the Gujarat government-appointed remission committee, faced flak over the release of the convicts and the welcome accorded to them.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai on January 21, 2008, sentenced the eleven accused to life imprisonment on the charge of gang rape and murder of seven members of the family of Bilkis Bano, a riot survivor.
Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court.
These convicts had served more than 15 years in jail after which one of them approached the Supreme Court with a plea for his premature release.
The apex court had directed the Gujarat government to look into the issue of remission of his sentence as per its 1992 policy on the basis of the date of his conviction.
Thereafter, the government formed a committee and issued an order allowing the premature release of all the convicts from jail.
While Khushbu is a member of the BJP’s national executive committee, the party has not taken any official position on it yet.
Bilkis Bano, who was pregnant, was gang-raped during the 2002 Gujarat pogrom.
Seven members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter, were murdered.