Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha, and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra expressed their opinions on Twitter after one of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case shared a stage with a BJP MP and MLA at a government program on Saturday.
Shailesh Bhatt, a convict in the Bilkis Bano rape case, was present at the launch of a group water supply scheme, along with Dahod BJP MP Jasvantsinh Bhabhor and Limkheda MLA Sailesh Bhabhor.
Kavitha tweeted, “Bilkis Bano Rapist openly shares stage with BJP’s MPs and MLAs.
What have we become as a community that perpetrators of heinous crimes against women are being celebrated and given a platform while the victims plead for justice.
India is watching!”
Mahua Moitra wants to see Bilkis Bano’s rapists back in jail
Similarly, Moitra wrote, “Bilkis Bano’s Rapist Shares Stage With Gujarat’s BJP MP, MLA.
I want to see these monsters back in jail and the key thrown away. And I want this satanic government that applauds this travesty of justice voted out. I want India to reclaim her moral compass.”
MLA Jasvantsinh Bhabhor shared the photographs from the event on social media. He wrote, “At Limkheda taluka of Dahod district, Kadana dam bulk pipeline-based Limkheda group water supply scheme under the estimated amount of 101.89 crore works was laid. In which 43 villages of Limkheda taluka, 18 villages of Singhwad taluka and 3 villages of Jhalod taluka will benefit from this scheme.”
SC to hear pleas against premature release of case convicts
Following their conviction by a special CBI court in Mumbai in 2008 on the charge of gang rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano’s family, Bhatt and 10 others were serving a life sentence in the Godhra sub-jail in Panchmahal district of Gujarat.
All 11 convicted of Bilkis Bano’s rape walked out of the sub-jail on August 15, 2022, after the incarceration of 15 years as the Gujarat government allowed their premature release under its remission policy, causing an outcry.
Their release was challenged in the Supreme Court, which on March 22 directed the matter for urgent listing and constituted a new bench to hear the bunch of pleas. The matter will come up for hearing on Monday, March 27.
The case dates back to 2002 when communal violence erupted in Gujarat following the burning of a Sabarmati Express coach that killed 59 karsevaks on February 27 that year.
Bilkis Bano, who was five-month pregnant at that time and 21 years old, had fled her village with her toddler daughter and 15 others. On March 3, they took shelter in a field when a mob of 20-30 people armed with sickles, swords and sticks attacked them. Bilkis Bano was gang raped and seven members of her family were killed.
