Ruling TRS MLC K Kavitha on Friday requested Chief Justice of India NV Ramana to intervene in the Gujarat government's decision to release 11 convicts in the case relating to Bilkis Bano gang-rape and murder of her kin case during the 2002 riots in the western state.
In a letter to the CJI, Kavitha alleged that the Gujarat government has acted in ignorance of the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs as part of the celebrations of 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' on April 21, 2022 which says that remission should be denied to prisoners convicted for the offence of rape, human trafficking, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO), and Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, 1956.
"I implore the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India to save the nation's faith in our laws and in humanity by intervening in this matter so that the decision of the release of the aforementioned convicts is withdrawn immediately," the TRS leader urged Justice Ramana.
"Bano was 21 at the time and five months pregnant when this heinous crime took place and to imagine her seeing her rapists walking free with impunity, then being garlanded and celebrated must have shattered her," Kavitha said.
The ruling party legislator pointed out that the case was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and it was the Special CBI Court that sentenced these convicts.
Section 435 (1) (a) of the Criminal Procedure Code states that the power of the state government to remit or commute a sentence in any case which was investigated by the CBI shall not be exercised by the state government, except after consultation with the Central government, she opined.
The former Lok Sabha member said that whether the release of the 11 convicts, in this case, was done in consultation with the Centre is unclear.
Meanwhile, Kavitha's brother and minister K T Rama Rao, in a tweet, referring to the Bilkis Bano case said political parties typically promise development, security, and welfare sops to win elections.
"Now they are releasing rapists and killers of pregnant women and children. These acts of omission, commission & remission will not be forgotten. Karma is a Boomerang," he said in the tweet.
