VADODARA: One of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case freed from jail last August shared the dais with a BJP MP and an MLA at a government event in Dahod district on March 25, days before the Supreme Court is due to hear a batch of petitions challenging the remission of their life sentences.
Avideo purportedly shows Shailesh Bhatt seated in the same row as Dahod MP Jasvantsinh Bhabhor and Limkheda MLA Sailesh Bhabhor during the foundation ceremony of water-supply schemes linked to the Karjan reservoir at Karmadi village.
Bhatt and 10 others convicted of gang-raping a pregnant Bilkis and conspiring to kill seven of her kin during the 2002 riots were controversially freed under the Gujarat government‘s remission policy on Independence Day last year.
The SC has now constituted a special bench comprising Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna to hear Bilkis’s writ petition and several other pleas challenging the remission of the 11 convicted men’s sentences.
Bilkis had moved the SC on November 30 last year, saying the decision to free the convicts had “shaken society’s conscience”. Besides the plea challenging the release of the convicts, the gang-rape survivor had filed a separate petition seeking a review of the SC’s May 13, 2022, order on aplea by a convict. The review plea was dismissed in December last year.
Avideo purportedly shows Shailesh Bhatt seated in the same row as Dahod MP Jasvantsinh Bhabhor and Limkheda MLA Sailesh Bhabhor during the foundation ceremony of water-supply schemes linked to the Karjan reservoir at Karmadi village.
Bhatt and 10 others convicted of gang-raping a pregnant Bilkis and conspiring to kill seven of her kin during the 2002 riots were controversially freed under the Gujarat government‘s remission policy on Independence Day last year.
The SC has now constituted a special bench comprising Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna to hear Bilkis’s writ petition and several other pleas challenging the remission of the 11 convicted men’s sentences.
Bilkis had moved the SC on November 30 last year, saying the decision to free the convicts had “shaken society’s conscience”. Besides the plea challenging the release of the convicts, the gang-rape survivor had filed a separate petition seeking a review of the SC’s May 13, 2022, order on aplea by a convict. The review plea was dismissed in December last year.
