New Delhi : A group of 134 former civil servants on Saturday urged the Supreme Court to rectify the Gujarat government’s “horrendously wrong decision” of releasing all 11 men convicted of rape and murder in the Bilkis Bano case.
As India had celebrated its 75th Independence anniversary on August 15, the men walked out of the gates of a prison in Godhra to the cheers of their supporters after the state government approved their application under its remission policy.In the letter, the former bureaucrats said that they are “deeply distressed” by the Gujarat government’s decision.
“The story of Bilkis Bano is, as you know, a story of immense courage and persistence,” it said. “It is a remarkable story of courage that this battered and bruised young woman, hiding from her tormentors, managed to seek justice from the courts.”
The group said that the accused persons were “influential” and so, the case had to be transferred from Gujarat to a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation in Mumbai to ensure a fair trial.“The case was a rare one because not only were the rapists and murderers punished, but so, too, were the policemen and doctors who tried to tamper with and erase the evidence to protect the accused and cover up the crime,” they said.
