NEW DELHI/ AHMEDABAD: Eleven convicts jailed for gang-rapes and multiple murders during the 2002 Gujarat riots and whose premature release from jail was overturned by the Supreme Court surrendered before the Godhra jail authorities late last night in Panchmahal district . Local Crime Branch inspector NL Desai told media.
Eleven men were convicted of the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The horrifying details of the gangrape of a pregnant Bilkis Yakub Rasool, 21 at the time, have been around for nearly two decades. Her three-year-old daughter and six others from her family were killed in front of her eyes in Dahod district of Gujarat amid the communal riots.
However, on August 15, 2022, the convicts were given a jail-free card and they walked out of the Godhra sub-jail under an outdated remission policy of the Gujarat government, setting off a massive political row. On August 15, 2022, the Gujarat government – following a nod from the Union home ministry under Amit Shah who was Gujarat home minister in 2002 – granted the 11 remission of their sentences. They were welcomed with garlands and a Bharatiya Janata Party leader said they were “good sanskaari Brahmins.
”The Supreme Court on January 8 asked the convicts, released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022, to surrender before jail authorities by January 21. On Friday, the court refused to grant them more time. The convicts had cited reasons such as health issues, impending surgery, and marriage in the family and harvest work and sought more time to surrender. The top court noted that the reasons cited by applicants to seek postponement of surrender and report back to jail “have no merit”.
This comes two days after the Supreme Court rejected their petitions seeking more time to surrender. The reasons provided by the convicts for seeking the extension included the health issues of elderly parents, a family wedding, and ongoing crop harvest, among others.
Several women activists and politicians, including Bilkis Bano herself, challenged the decision at the Supreme Court which held the remission illegal and said that the Gujarat government did not have the authority to grant it. On January 8, the court had given them two weeks’ time to surrender, meaning that time would be up on January 22
The 11 convicts are Bakabhai Vohania, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Govind Nai, Jaswant Nai, Mitesh Bhatt, Pradeep Mordhiya, Radheshyam ShahRajubhai Soni, Ramesh Chandana and Shailesh Bhatt.
(Bureau Report with Inputs from Ahmedabad Office)

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