India’s top court on Monday overturned the state government’s decision to free 11 men convicted of gang-raping a pregnant Muslim woman during Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002, and ordered their return to jail.
The men were part of a Hindu mob sentenced to life in prison for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano, who was 21 years old and pregnant at the time. The same mob killed 14 members of her family, including her 3-year-old daughter.
They were released in August 2022 after serving 14 years of their sentences following a decision taken by the Gujarat state government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
But the Supreme Court of India has overturned that decision and ordered the convicts to report to the prison authorities within a maximum of two weeks.
The Gujarat government lacked jurisdiction to pass the remission orders, the court ruled, also harshly criticizing this administration for abusing its discretionary powers by releasing the 11 convicts without authorization.
The move was celebrated by Bano supporters, who had denounced the men’s release as an attack not only on Muslims but also on women’s rights in a country where government data shows that a woman is raped every 17 minutes.
“With this ruling the rule of law has been restored. Many congratulations to Bilkis and to all of us who supported her and fought for her,” Shobha Gupta, Bano’s lawyer, said after the ruling.
The crimes committed against Bano took place in February 2002 during one of India’s worst religious riots, which left more than 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslims.
Bano explained to the court that the men ran towards them with swords, clubs and sickles. According to court documents, one grabbed her young daughter and crushed her to the ground. Three men raped her, while the others attacked her sisters, aunts and her daughters. She fell unconscious and woke up hours later, surrounded by corpses.
In 2008, after a high-profile trial, her attackers were sentenced to life in prison for rape and murder. But in August 2022, the state government granted them remission under a provision of the Indian Code of Criminal Procedure that allows prisoners to be released once they turn 14 years of age.
The decision sparked outrage across India, with protests in support of Bano from Kolkata to Mumbai. Critics claimed the decision to free the men was tainted by politics, misogyny and religious discrimination.