Catholic rights activist says judgment a ‘vindication of the relentless struggle’ of the Muslim victim

Christian and Muslim rights campaigners have hailed India’s top court for canceling the early release of convicts jailed for the gang-rape of a Muslim woman and murdering her relatives during the 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat state.

The Supreme Court on Jan. 8 quashed the remission granted by the Gujarat government to 11 men sentenced to life imprisonment and directed them to surrender to prison authorities within two weeks.

“Their plea for protection of their liberty is rejected,” the court said. “To keep them out would not be in consonance with the rule of law.”

The 11 men had raped Bilkis Bano, who was 21 years old and five months pregnant, on March 3, 2002, while she was fleeing the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in the western Indian state.

Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed by them.

The convicted were released on Aug. 15, 2022, after completing 15 years in prison by the state government in consideration of their age and good behavior during incarceration.

Multiple pleas were filed challenging the remission, including one by Bano herself.

The Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, held that the Gujarat government was “not competent” to decide on remission because the gang rapists were convicted and sentenced by a court in neighboring Maharashtra state.

The 11 men were tried in a special court set up in Maharashtra’s capital Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and sentenced on Jan. 21, 2008. Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court.

“It is a major triumph for truth and justice as the Supreme Court quashed the Gujarat government’s blatantly partial and illegal decision to allow the premature release of convicts in the gang rape case,” Father Cedric Prakash, a Catholic human rights activist told UCA News on Jan. 8.

The Jesuit priest said the top court order unequivocally stated that “the state under whom the convict was tried and sentenced was the appropriate government.”

“This emphasizes the place of trial rather than where the crime took place,” he said.

Prakash said the judgment is also a vindication of the relentless struggle of Bano for truth and justice despite having to face hostilities and threats from every quarter.

The landmark and insightful verdict will surely restore the faith of the common people “that there is still that glimmer of hope with and in the apex court and that all is still not lost for truth and justice in democratic India,” the priest added.

Muhammad Arif, chairman of the Centre for Harmony and Peace, told UCA News: “Certainly it is a highly commendable job by the Supreme Court of India because it will give a positive message among the people that law is above all, irrespective of political parties and individuals.”

Arif, whose organization is based in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, said that it was more painful when the federal government justified and welcomed the Gujarat government’s decision to free the 11 convicts.

“If the convicts are freed just because of their alleged good conduct in jail, there would be many who will seek release on the same grounds. Will the government also set them free,” he asked.

Arif said India has been witnessing increased religious polarization since the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014.

The 11 men were given heroes welcome by hardline Hindu groups after they were released from prison, which caused global outrage, he recalled.

A video that went viral on social media showed the released men lined up outside the Godhra jail while their relatives and political activists showered them with flowers and distributed sweets.