Two days after the release of 11 rapists who were convicted of gangraping and killing her family members, a “still numb” Bilkis Bano said that her faith in India’s judicial system has been left “shaken.” Releasing Bano’s statement on the development, her lawyer Shobha Gupta said, “Today, I can only say this — how can justice for any woman end like this? I trusted the highest courts in our land. I trusted the system and I was slowly learning to live with my trauma. The release of these convicts has taken from me my peace and shaken my faith in justice.”
Bano also expressed shock at the Gujarat government’s “unjust” move to release the convicts without even enquiring about her “safety and well-being.” Bano, in her statement, said: “Two days ago, on August 15, 2022, the trauma of the past 20 years washed over me again. When I heard that the 11 convicted men, who devastated my family and my life, and took from me my three-year-old daughter, had walked free. I was bereft of words. I am still numb…”
“My sorrow and my wavering faith is not for myself alone but for every woman, who is struggling for justice in the courts. No one enquired about my safety and well-being before taking such a big and unjust decision. I appeal to the Gujarat government, please undo this harm. Give me back my right to live without fear and in peace. Please ensure that my family and I are kept safe,” she said.
After the release of 11 convicts, most of whom were her neighbours when the gruesome incidents took place during the 2002 Gujarat riots, there was an uneasy calm at Bano’s village in Dahod’s Singvad. There were hardly any celebrations marking the return of the convicts in the village, reported The Indian Express. However, Bano and her family left their house and village long back and have settled in Devgadh Baria, which is 33 kilometers away.
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Soon after the Godhra incident, a 21-year-old Bano, who was five-months pregnant back then, was gangraped in Dahod’s Limkheda taluka. She also witnessed the murder of 14 of her family members, including her three-year-old daughter. Seven bodies were declared missing. The 11 convicts were sentenced to life in prison by a special CBI court back in 2008, a decision later upheld by the Gujarat High Court.
