No Death penalty | Convicts in Bilkis Bano gang-rape case handed lifer
It is worth mentioning that the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in 2008 for the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family members in the wake of the Godhra riots, had moved the Bombay HC against their conviction by a local court
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has dismissed the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) appeal for granting death sentence to 11 men in the March 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case in Gujarat.
The High Court, however, upheld the life imprisonment punishment of the 17 convicts in the case.
It may be recalled that as many as 17 accused were convicted for raping 19-year-old pregnant Bano and killing 14 members of her family, including her three-old daughter during Gujarat riots in year 2002.
The court, who has had recently reserved its order in the case, also convicted five police officers in the case but rejected the central investigating agency's appeal to enhance punishment of certain convicts.
It is worth mentioning that the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in 2008 for the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family members in the wake of the Godhra riots, had moved the Bombay HC against their conviction by a local court.
About the Bilkis Bano gangrape case:
- Bilkis Bano was six months pregnant when she was gangraped during the communal violence that erupted in Gujarat in 2002.
- Her family members were also brutally murdered by a violent mob when they were trying to escape from their riot-struck village Randhikpur, 250 km away from Ahmedabad..
- Bilkis had survived the slaughter but was subjected to gangrape by a savage mob.
- The trial in the case began in Ahmedabad but the Supreme Court transferred the case to Mumbai in August 2004 after Bano’s appeal expressing fears that witnesses could be harmed and the CBI’s evidence could be tampered.