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Wrong if accused are felicitated: Fadnavis on Bilkis rapists
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said that if any of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case were felicitated upon their release from a jail in Gujarat earlier this month, then “it was wrong”
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said that if any of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case were felicitated upon their release from a jail in Gujarat earlier this month, then “it was wrong”.
Fadnavis’s comments came while he was speaking in the legislative council on the issue of women’s safety.
Opposition legislators had raised the issue of crimes against women, bringing up the Bano case, as well as the Bhandara gang rape case — a 36-year-old woman was gang raped atleast on two occasions in Gondia and Bhandara districts of the state on July 30 and August 2 respectively. The accused had also brutalised the survivor.
“There was no need to raise Bilkis Bano case here (in the House). The convicts have been released after completing nearly 14 years in jail. They were released following a Supreme Court order. But it is wrong if any accused is felicitated. An accused is an accused, and such acts cannot be justified,” Fadnavis said, clarifying that he did not support such a celebration.
The 11 convicts in the Bano case walked out of Godhra sub-jail on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. They had completed more than 15 years in jail.
They were sentenced to life imprisonment on January 21, 2008, by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai on charges of Bano’s gang-rape and the murder of seven members of her family. Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court.
Bilkis Bano was 21-years-old and five-months pregnant when she was gang raped while fleeing the violence that broke out after the Godhra train burning. Among those killed were her 3-year-old daughter.
