Bilkis Bano Case: Supreme Court Dismisses Pleas of Convicts Seeking Extension of Time To Surrender

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the applications filed by convicts in Bilkis Bano case seeking extension of time to surrender before jail authorities. The time to surrender by the convicts is expiring on January 21. Supreme Court while dismissing the applications of convicts for an extension of time to surrender says that the reasons cited by them to seek postponement of surrender and report back to jail have no merit.

The Court said that the reasons cited by the convicts seeking extension of time to surrender lacked merits. The convicts will have to surrender before the jail authorities by January 21,the original deadline set by the Court as per its January 8 judgment which set aside their premature release.

In a landmark decision on January 8, the Supreme Court ruled that the Gujarat government lacked jurisdiction to release the 11 convicts, who were originally sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple murders and the brutal gang rape of Bilkis Bano during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The court granted them two weeks to surrender, which expires this Sunday.

Bilkis Bano's case is particularly poignant as she was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she fell victim to a gang-rape while escaping the riots that erupted in Gujarat following the Godhra train burning incident in 2002. Tragically, her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members who lost their lives during the violence.