Bilkis Bano verdict: HC rejects CBI plea for death sentence

TIL Desk/National/Mumbai/ No death penalty for Gujarat riots’ victim Bilkis Banos rapists, says Bombay High Court. The Bombay High Court rejects the CBI plea for a death sentence for the three people accused of gangraping Bilkis Bano and murdering 14 members of her family. All 17 people accused of raping her and killing her family have been convicted.

The Court is pronouncing its verdict in response to the appeals of 11 convicts. All the convicts have challenged the lifetime imprisonment awarded by a sessions court. A division bench presided over by Justice Vijaya Tahilramani and Justice Mridula Bhatkar has heard the appeals of 11 convicts in this case along with the appeals of CBI which has sought enhancement in the punishment for three convicts in the case.

Bilkis Bano’s three-old daughter was also killed during the Gujarat riots of 2002. The CBI had last year told court that this was a “rarest of rare case” and that the death penalty must be awarded to three convicts to send out a “stern message.” The agency has alleged that there is direct evidence that the three men – Jaswant Nai, Govind Nai, and Sailesh Bhatt – gangraped Bilkis, who was five months pregnant, her sister and her mother.

Sailesh Bhatt also allegedly snatched Bilkis’ three-year-old daughter from her and crushed her head on a stone. The child died on the spot. Bilkis’s mother and sister were among the 14 of her family and 17 people from the village killed by the rioters on March 3, 2002.