On Monday, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra posted a picture on Twitter that purportedly showed one of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape and murder case on stage with two BJP leaders in Gujarat.
The convicted rapist, Shailesh Bhatt, was reportedly attending the launch of a group water supply scheme along with Dahod BJP MP Jasvantsinh Bhabhor and his brother, Limkheda MLA Sailesh Bhabhor.
The 11 rapists were released prematurely on Independence Day last year due to the state government’s outdated remission policy of 1992. Moitra criticized the ruling BJP government and demanded the imprisonment of the convicts while urging people to vote against the party that supports such a ‘travesty of justice.’
Jasvantsinh also shared pictures from the government program and described the benefits of the water supply scheme in his social media post. The case has been challenged in the Supreme Court, and a new bench comprising justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna will hear the case on Monday. Moitra is one of the petitioners against the release of the rapists in the 2002 case.
In 2008, the 11 men were sentenced to life imprisonment for gangraping and murdering Bilkis Bano’s family members during the Gujarat riots that followed the attack on Sabarmati Express. Bano, who was five months pregnant at the time, was also gangraped.
The release of the men was initiated after Radheshyam Shah, one of the convicts, approached the Supreme Court seeking remission, arguing that he had spent over 15 years in jail. The Gujarat government’s existing remission policy of 2014 has no provision for the early release of rape convicts.
Last month, a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala assured Bano that a new bench would be formed soon to hear the petitions against the release of the rapists. A series of petitions have been filed against the release of the convicts in the 2002 case.
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