Bilkis Bano convicts surrender in Gujarat as Supreme Court deadline ends

mangaloretoday.com/ndtv

New Delhi, Jan 22, 2024: All 11 convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case surrendered at a Gujarat jail on Sunday night in line with the Supreme Court enforced deadline.

They surrendered at Godhra sub jail in Panchmahal district.

 

"All 11 convicts have surrendered before jail authorities late Sunday night," local Crime Branch inspector NL Desai told news agency PTI.

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, 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".

The 11 convicts are Bakabhai Vohania, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Govind Nai, Jaswant Nai, Mitesh Bhatt, Pradeep Mordhiya, Radheshyam Shah, Rajubhai Soni, Ramesh Chandana and Shailesh Bhatt.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while trying to escape the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in February 2002.