The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Gujarat Government to explain whether the five policemen convicted for tampering with evidence in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape incident had been reinstated. The Court gave the State four weeks to suggest whether it intended to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the erring cops who were found guilty in the case by the Bombay High Court in May this year.
The victim, Bilkis had approached the apex court with the plea to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the five cops. Her counsel Shobha informed a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that as per the information received, all the five police personnel had returned to work.
A surprised bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, remarked, “How can they return to workIJ” The Court posed its query to Gujarat Government counsel Hemantika Wahi who said that the policemen had completed their sentence.
Shobha urged the Court to consider her petition for initiating disciplinary proceedings and also her prayer for grant of compensation. The bench kept her first request pending with it while on the second prayer, asked her to file a fresh appeal against the Bombay HC order for grant of compensation. The HC had directed the seven accused to pay a meagre sum of Rs 2000 each to the victim.
The Bilkis Bano incident occurred on March 3, 2002 when she was 19 years old and five months pregnant. In the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident, her family decided to leave Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad when a mob attacked them. 18 members of her family were killed while she was brutally gangraped. On January 21, 2008 the trial court found 11 persons guilty of the crime while seven persons including five cops and two doctors were acquitted.
The CBI filed appeals in the Bombay HC demanding death penalty for three of the main culprits. In its order of May 4 this year, the HC upheld the life sentence of the 11 accused and even convicted the five cops and two doctors on charges under IPC Section 218 (not performing their duties) and Section 201 (tampering with evidence).
The convicted policemen and doctors are Narpat Singh, Idris Abdul Saiyed, Bikabhai Patel, Ramsingh Bhabhor, Sombhai Gori, Arun Kumar Prasad (doctor) and Sangeeta Kumar Prasad (doctor). The accused had approached the apex court which too refused to stay the order of the Bombay HC.