The Gujarat High Court has granted a 10-day parole to Ramesh Chandana, a convict in the Bilkis Bano case, allowing him to attend his nephew’s wedding on March 5. Chandana, who filed for parole last week, is the second convict in the case to be granted parole, following an order for all 11 convicts to surrender at a Godhra jail on January 21, as per a Supreme Court directive. The case involves the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots.
In his order issued on Friday, Justice Divyesh Joshi considered Chandana’s plea, granting him parole to attend his sister’s son’s wedding. The order cited Chandana’s incarceration since 2008 and his previous periods of parole and furlough, as mentioned in the Gujarat government’s affidavit to the Supreme Court.
Previously, another convict, Pradip Modhiya, was released on parole from February 7 to 11, following the high court’s approval of his plea. Additionally, in August 2022, 11 convicts serving life sentences were prematurely released under the state government’s remission policy, citing their good conduct. However, the Supreme Court later overturned this decision, ruling that the state government lacked jurisdiction to grant such releases, as the trial had occurred in Maharashtra. Consequently, the convicts were ordered to return to jail within two weeks, leading to their surrender on January 21.
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