India’s top court overturns release of 11 rapists in 2002 riots case

Order for their release passed in August 2022, sparking widespread anger in India

India’s Supreme Court on Monday quashed a Gujarat government’s order that allowed the release of 11 men convicted of raping a Muslim woman and murdering her family.

The order of their release, now overturned and likely to send the convicts back to the jail, was passed in August 2022, sparking widespread anger in India.

The 11 men were serving life terms for the gangrape of a then 21-year-old and five months-pregnant Bilkis Bano and the subsequent murder of her family when the 2002 Gujarat riots broke out.

Ms Bano was gang-raped on 3 March 2002 in Gujarat’s Dahod district amid widespread violence in the state in the aftermath of the Sabarmati Express massacre.

Just days before, 59 people who were mostly volunteers of Hindu organisations, were killed on the Sabarmati Express train when their coach was set on fire at Gujarat’s Godhra station by a suspected Muslim mob, in a heavily disputed claim. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi was the state chief minister then and at the helm of affairs.

The incident unleashed violence across the state on an unprecedented scale. According to government data, more than 1,000 people were killed in post-Godhra violence. But unofficial estimates state over 2,000 people – mostly Muslims – were killed.

India’s apex court in its verdict has asked all 11 convicts to surrender and return back to prison within two weeks, stating that the “rule of law must prevail”, reported Live Law, an Indian news website on judicial affairs.

“A woman deserves respect howsoever high or low she may otherwise be considered in society or to whatever faith she may follow or whatever creed she may belong to. Can heinous crimes against women permit remission? These are the issue which arise,” said Justice BV Nagarathna, who authored the judgement.

He also said the Gujarat government’s move was issued after a writ petition was filed by one of the 11 gangrape convicts who made misleading statements and had hidden material fact of an earlier decision by the Bombay High Court and the opinion of the presiding judge.

When the convicts were released in 2022, videos on social media showed them being greeted by family members outside Godhra jail as they stepped out.

The convicted men were garlanded and offered sweets, as relatives touched their feet seeking their blessings.

One of the 11 was also seen sharing a stage with two lawmakers from Mr Modi-led Indian ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in March last year.

Ms Bano moved the Supreme Court in November 2022 against the release of the convicts.

In her plea, Ms Bano urged the court to move her challenge to their release to the neighbouring Maharashtra state where the trial took place, instead of in Gujarat.

Ms Bano had fled her village in the aftermath of the violence with her daughter and 15 others.

The order on Monday was welcomed by Indian opposition leaders.

“Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Respect for #BilkisBano, a strong woman who never gave up her fight for justice. May your tribe increase,” said Indian lawmaker Priyanka Chaturvedi.

Opposition Congress’s spokesperson Pawan Khera said the court’s order “exposed” the BJP’s “callous disregard for women”.

“It is a slap on the face of those who facilitated the illegal release of these criminals and also those who garlanded the convicts and fed sweets to them, by bulldozing justice. India will not allow administration of justice to be incumbent on the religion or the caste of the victim or the perpetrator of a crime,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.