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part of the money to help other victims accused persons, such as some Gujarat prosecutor in the case, RK Shah. Bilkis
of the communal violence. police officers and government doctors. said she and her family faced much
“I pray today that the spirit of the vic- The Supreme Court also asked the Guja- hardship during their fifteen-year-long
tims like her, the courage of survivors, rat government what action it had taken fight for justice, but received no support
the struggles of ordinary citizens, and against the police officers involved in her from the government despite repeated
the democratic institutions of India will case, as they were continuing to receive appeals.
come together again and again to end government benefits. The Gujarat gov- “We have faced many difficulties dur-
the hate and fear that is gripping our ernment told the Supreme Court that ing these fifteen years. We frequently
country,” says Bano. She also gave spe- they had demoted one of the police offic- changed house, while also being wor-
cial credit to various agencies such as ers by two ranks. ried about the education of our children.
the NHRC and the CBI, which she says The husband of Bilkis Bano, mean- Gujarat government has not given
believed in her case and re-investigated while, has demanded compensation us any support, nor have we received
it “with honesty and impartiality.” from the state government. “We will wait support from any government official,”
Only in 2008 did a special court con- for the government to pay us compensa- Bilkis said
vict and sentence 11 men to life impris- tion before approaching the court,” her When asked if they are thinking of
onment for the rape and murder. The husband Yakub told reporters here at going back to their village in Dahod dis-
Bombay high court upheld the sentence an event organised by the civil society trict, Yakub said they would like to return,
and also set aside the acquittal of other members to felicitate the special public but would face hostility there. “The con-
victs and their relatives live there. Our
family is destroyed....I do not want to go
TWISTS AND TURNS IN BILKIS BANO CASE back in this situation,” he said, adding that
he wants their five children to get educa-
tion so that they could become lawyers
and help victims like them, he said. Advo-
On March 3, 2002 Bilkis Bano’s The top court had on July 10, 2017 cate Shah said the case was unusual, and
family was attacked by a mob dismissed the appeals of two Bilkis’s deposition before the court was a
at Randhikpur village near doctors and four policemen, crucial piece of evidence.
Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra including an IPS officer R S “This was an unusual, complex case
riots. Bhagora, challenging their convic- where police filed a report saying the ac-
Bilkis, five months pregnant at that tion by the high court saying there cused could not be traced. Only because
was “clear-cut evidence” against
time, was gang-raped and several them. One of the officers did not the CBI investigated it, we could have
members of her family were killed. appeal. them prosecuted,” he said. “The incident
The trial in the case initially began The convicts had later approached took place at a deserted place with no
eye-witnesses. Bilkis saw her relatives
in Ahmedabad. the Bombay High Court and sought getting murdered. Her account before
After Bilkis expressed apprehen- quashing and setting aside of the the court was vital. She was cross-exam-
sions that the witnesses could trial court’s conviction. ined for 22 days by three learned lawyers.
be harmed and the CBI evidence The CBI had also filed an appeal in We examined 73 witnesses, but Bilkis’s
tampered with, the Supreme Court the high court seeking harsher pun- deposition was the most important.
transferred the case to Mumbai in ishment of death for three of the No other witness’ account was valued
August 2004. convicted persons on the ground (as much). “Whoever the victim is, she
should get justice. For a successful court
A special court had on 21 January, that they were the main perpetra- case, we need a skilled prosecutor and
2008 convicted and sentenced to tors of the crime. a sensitive judge,” he added. Gagan
life imprisonment 11 men for raping The convicts had challenged the Sethi of NGO Janvikas, which helped
Bilkis and murdering seven of her order on three main grounds - that Bilkis in her legal fight, said they never
family members, while acquitting all evidence in the case was fabri- doubted the judicial system but there
seven persons including the police- cated by CBI, that Bilkis gave birth should be better prosecutors, lawyers
men and doctors. to a child after the incident, proving and judges at the district-level courts.
The high court, on May 4, 2017, that she could not have been gang “Police may be wrong at times, but
convicted seven people - five raped, and the failure to find the they are not a state unto themselves.
policemen and two doctors - under bodies of some of her family mem- Our district-level courts still do not have
charges of not performing their du- bers which proved that they were good prosecutors, lawyers or judges,”
ties and tampering of evidence. not killed. he said.
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