|
Bilkis Bano
finally gets justice, at least some
WSN Network
| |
Bilkis Bano: The
case as mirror of India
The wheels of God, the Bible tells us, grind slowly but they
grind exceedingly small. The criminal justice system in India
can often be exasperatingly slow in delivery, and only
occasionally that the ends of justice are fully met. The verdict
of a trial court in Mumbai convicting 12 of the 19 accused in
the Bilkis Bano rape case is one such. That the Supreme Curt had
to agree to shift the trial out of Gujarat says something about
the ability of the Indian state to ensure that justice is
available everywhere. In Gujarat, every conceivable attempt was
made by the prosecution with the connivance of the police, the
state bureaucracy and the ruling political party to thwart the
course of justice. Evidence was wilfully destroyed or fudged,
witnesses were threatened and their families coerced into
silence. The Gujarat government closed the case. It would have
been the end of the story but for the Supreme Court which acted
at Bilkis Bano's instance. The story itself is blood-chillingly
gory and typically exemplifies the human bestiality witnessed in
Gujarat during the post-Godhra massacre of the minorities. A
pregnant Bilkis was stripped and gangraped and her two-year-old
daughter was brutally done to death in front of her eyes.
Seventeen members of her family were massacred, eight of them
burnt alive. But incredibly enough, Bilkis Bano never lost her
faith in the judiciary all through the six years between the
offence and the final verdict during which she encountered
nothing but official harassment. That, unfortunately, has been
the experience of many other victims of the state-blessed 2002
anti-Muslim pogrom who are still to be fully rehabilitated by
the state's civil society. |
|
 MUMBAI:
In a justice done, though perhaps not so completely for the victim,
the sessions court in Mumbai sent 12 people to life imprisonment in
the Bilkis Bano gangrape case that was shifted from Gujarat to
Mumbai in August 2003 by the Supreme Court as it was feared that
evidence was being manipulated.
The judgment came six
years after communal riots rocked Gujarat following the burning
alive of karsevaks in a compartment of the Sabarmati Express at
Godhra. On Friday, judge U.D. Salvi pronounced the names of the
convicted. The sentence was handed down on Monday.
The judge said that
though there are only three rapists, the rest of the nine are
conspirators in the attack on the Bilkis family. All of them are
held guilty of the crime. The judge said, "They are held guilty in
the same crime rape of Bilkis."
The convicted are
police officer Sonabhai Khoyabhai Gori, Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah,
alias Lala Vakil, Jaswantbhai Chaturbhai Nai, Bakabhai Khimabhai
Vogaria, Govindbhai Nai, Shailesh Chimanlal Bhatt, Bipin Chandra
Kanyalal Joshi, alias Lala Doctor, Ramesh Chandana, Kesarbhai
Khimabhai Vogaria, Pradeepbhai Ramanlal Mordhiya, Mitesh Chimanlal
Bhatt and Rajubhai Babulal Sohni. All the 11 accused (one died
during the trial) have been convicted under the Indian Penal Code's
Sections 302 (murder), 120 [b] (conspiracy), 149 (every member of
unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed) and 376 [2] [e] [g]
(rape on pregnant woman and gang rape).
The police officer
has been convicted under IPC Sections 217 (public servant disobeying
direction of law with intent to save person from punishment or
property from forfeiture) and 218 (public servant framing incorrect
record or writing with intent to save person from punishment or
property from forfeiture). In the same case, five police officers
and two medical officers were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
The judge observed
that there were some faults in the investigation carried out by the
police. The judge also observed, "The medical reports submitted by
the medical officers had mistakes which if considered were serious,
but there was no evidence to prove that they were tampered to help
the accused."
The acquitted are R.S.
Bhargava, Idris Abdul Sayyed, Bikabhai Ramjibhai Patel, Narpatsingh
Ranchod, Ramsingh Motibhai Bhagur, Dr Arun Kumar Prasad and Dr
Sangeeta Arun Prasad.
23 January 2008
|
Read Also