As the Supreme Court cancelled an order passed by the Gujarat government to release 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case and gave them two weeks to surrender before the jail authorities, nine of the 11 convicts reportedly went “missing” from the twin villages of Randhikpur and Singvad in the Dahod district.

The two villages in Gujarat are located side by side. Bilkis and her family also lived in Randhikpur before the Godhra riots. They left their house on February 28, 2002, soon after the train-burning incident in Godhra the previous day. On March 3, 2002, she was gangraped and 14 members of the family, including her three-year-old daughter, were killed by a mob in Limkheda taluka of Dahod. The bodies of six were never found.

The 11 convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment by a CBI special court on January 21, 2008. All of them were released on August 15, 2022, after an order by the state govt to grant them remission.

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After the convicts were released, all of them reportedly returned to their villages. However, nine of them are nowhere to be found now.

Claiming that his son was innocent, Akhambhai Chaturbhai Raval (87), father of one of the convicts, Govind Nai (55), blamed the conviction on “political vendetta of Congress”. Raval said Govind had left the house “a week ago”, Indian Express reported.

However, a local policeman said that Govind left home on Saturday (January 6).

His parents emphasised that they are a “Hindu faith-abiding family, incapable of committing the crimes” that have been alleged against their son as well as Akhambhai’s brother Jashvant Nai, another convict in the case.

“I wish and pray that he (Govind) gets to do seva (service) at the (Ram) mandir pratishthan in Ayodhya. It is better to do seva than do nothing and roam around every day. He has not been able to do anything since he was released (from jail). Going back to jail is not a big deal and it is not that he was out of jail unlawfully. He was released with due process of law and now the law has told him to go back, so he will go back,” Akhambhai said, IE reported.

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Another convict, Radheshyam Shah, has not been home “since the last 15 months”, his father Bhagwandas Shah said and claimed that he “doesn’t know where Radheshyam is… he went with his wife and son”, even as neighbours and shopkeepers at the village square attest that nearly all the convicts were publicly seen until Sunday, including Radheshyam.

In the twin villages, most shopkeepers were seen silent and refrained from commenting on the verdict.

When asked about the whereabouts of the convicts, a villager said, “You won’t find them now. All of them locked their houses and left.”

Outside each of the convicts’s houses, a constable has been stationed, as a part of the police bandobast in light of Supreme Court’s verdict.

A few metres from the village’s square is the house of Pradip Modhiya (57), another convict who is missing. Sub-Inspector R N Damor, stationed outside his house, said that Pradip left early Monday and will return soon “since he also left his vehicle (a bike) here”, as reported by The Indian Express.

Also Read: ‘Complicit, acted in tandem with convicts’: SC rebukes Gujarat govt while cancelling remission of 11 Bilkis Bano convicts

On being asked about convict Ramesh Chandana (60), villagers said he no longer lived in Singvad and is primarily based in Godhra. His son-in-law, whose house is metres away from Pradip’s, said that Ramesh “is not in a state to talk or meet to discuss the verdict, even over the phone.”

The other convicts included brothers Shailesh Bhatt (65) and Mitesh Bhatt (58), neighbours of Radheshyam. The Shah family displayed ignorance about the whereabouts of the Bhatts.

The remaining convicts with their residences in the village are Rajubhai Soni, Kesharbhai Vohania, Bakabhai Vohania and Bipinchandra Joshi, who is now purportedly based out of Vadodara, said villagers.