He asked the CJI to set aside the exemption order passed by the Gujarat government and send the convicts back to jail to serve life imprisonment.
He asked the CJI to set aside the exemption order passed by the Gujarat government and send the convicts back to jail to serve life imprisonment.
Over 130 former civil servants on Saturday wrote an open letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) against the premature release of 11 jailed people in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case, asking him to rectify the “horrific wrong decision”. requested.
He asked the CJI to set aside the exemption order passed by the Gujarat government and send back 11 people convicted of gang rape and murder to serve life imprisonment.
It said, “Like most of our country, we are shocked by what happened in Gujarat a few days ago on the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.”
The 134 signatories to the letter, written under the aegis of the Constitutional Conduct Group, included former Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, former cabinet secretary KM Chandrashekhar, former foreign secretaries Shivshankar Menon and Sujatha Singh and former home secretary GK Pillai.
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit took oath as the 49th Chief Justice of India on Saturday.
On August 25, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Center and the Gujarat government on a petition challenging the release of the 11 convicts and posted the matter for hearing after two weeks.
The former civil servants said the release of the convicts has “annoyed the nation”.
“We write to you because we are deeply aggrieved by this decision of the Government of Gujarat and because we believe that it is only the Supreme Court which has major jurisdiction, and hence the responsibility, to rectify this terrible wrong decision,” the letter said. Reading.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant while fleeing the riots that followed the Godhra train fire in 2002. His three-year-old daughter was among the seven killed.
In January 2008, a special CBI court in Mumbai sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment for the gang rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano’s family. Later the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court upheld his sentence.
The former civil servants wrote, “The case was rare as not only were the rapists and murderers punished, but there were also policemen and doctors, who tried to obliterate and destroy evidence to protect the accused in the crime.” The letter states that after serving a 15-year jail term, one of the accused, Radheshyam Shah, approached the Supreme Court seeking his premature release.
The Gujarat High Court, which was earlier approached for the purpose, had dismissed his plea, saying that the “appropriate government” to decide the matter belonged to Maharashtra and not Gujarat.
After this Radheshyam Shah filed a petition in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court also directed Radheshyam Shah’s plea that the application for premature release be considered by the Gujarat government within two months, and in accordance with its policy dated 9 July 1992, it said.
“We are perplexed as to why the Supreme Court considered the matter so urgent that the decision had to be taken within two months, also the Supreme Court ordered that the matter should be investigated in accordance with the 1992 exemption policy of Gujarat, and not as per its current policy,” the letter said.
“Given these apparent deviations from established law, the departure from government policy and propriety, and the impact this release will have, not only on Bilkis Bano and her family and supporters, but also on the safety of all women in India.” Especially those who belong to the minority and vulnerable communities, we urge you to revoke the exemption order passed by the Gujarat government and send back the 11 people convicted of gang rape and murder to serve their life sentences.” they wrote.