Govt will consider SC remarks if Bilkis Bano convicts apply for remission, hint Maha officials
The Maharashtra government is waiting for an official directive regarding the remission granted to the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case. NCP chief Sharad Pawar has urged the government to consider the seriousness of the crime. The Supreme Court had scrapped the remission granted by the Gujarat government, stating that only the Maharashtra government has the authority to grant remission as the trial was held in Mumbai.
MUMBAI: A day after the Supreme Court scrapped the remission granted to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case and said that the Maharashtra government alone could grant remission as the trial was held in Mumbai, state home department officials said there was no need for them to take any step until the issue officially reached them. They also indicated that the government would have to keep in mind the order passed by the apex court if the convicts applied for remission.
“The SC has not given any directive to the Maharashtra government,” said a top home department official. “The convicts will have to petition the Maharashtra government for remission through the proper authorities.”
The official, on condition of anonymity, said that the Maharashtra government was “not expected to act in the fashion the Gujarat government did”, and had no need to do so. “It is unlikely to take any step in the direction of remission after the SC strictures and the reactions at an international level to the Gujarat government’s decision,” he said. “But the final decision will be taken by the political leadership.”
Meanwhile, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday asked the Maharashtra government to act, keeping in mind the heinousness of the crime. “I request the CM and home minister to take into account that seven members of a family were murdered,” he said while addressing reporters on Tuesday. “Do not ignore either the atrocities against Bilkis Bano or the Supreme Court’s order.” Pawar added that the Gujarat government should never have taken a decision to let the convicts off.
The Supreme Court on Monday set aside the Gujarat government’s 2022 decision to prematurely release 11 convicts facing life terms for the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and various other heinous crimes committed during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The bench ruled that the Gujarat government did not have the competence to decide the remission of the convicts, as the trial in the case had shifted to Maharashtra.
One of the convicts, Radheyshyam Bhagwandas Shah, had approached the Maharashtra government, which refused to grant remission after all the convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment by a special CBI court in Mumbai in 2008, and their sentence was upheld by the Bombay high court in 2017.
There was no reaction from chief minister Shinde or deputy CM and home minister Devendra Fadnavis till late on Tuesday.
