By Christophe Jaffrelot / Indian Express
The remission of the life sentences of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case comes as a powerful reminder of a key dimension of the post-2002 Gujarat violence scenario — the guilty men and women went to jail only because of the then Supreme Court.
Bilkis, who was five months pregnant when she was gang raped by neighbours on March 3, 2002, after witnessing the murder of 15 members of her family including her three-year-old daughter, had tried to lodge a complaint the following day for rape and murder. While recording her complaint, the police only mentioned seven of the deaths, claiming that the bodies of the other people could not be found, and refused to record her complaint for rape. The case was closed in January 2003 for lack of evidence.
Bilkis, with the support of several NGOs, including Janvikas and the National Human Rights Commission, petitioned the Supreme Court (SC), which ordered the government of Gujarat to reopen the case in September 2003. The police then began a campaign of moral harassment, even waking her in the middle of the night to return to the location of the rape and murders to re-enact the events. In December 2003, the SC directed the CBI to reopen the case. It finally arrested 12 people for rape and murder and six police officers for obstruction of justice.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com . Read the full story here
