The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the appeals of two doctors and four policemen including an IPS officer challenging their conviction by the Bombay High Court in the sensational 2002 Bilkis Bano rape case, saying there was "clear-cut evidence" against them.
The Court found fault with the trial court verdict by which they got acquitted and felt convinced that the Bombay High Court had rightly reversed their acquittal.
Rejecting their appeals, the bench of Justices SA Bobde and lN Rao said, "You all have been unreasonably acquitted by the trial court in the case despite there being clear-cut evidence against you." IPS officer R S Bhagora, who is currently serving in Gujarat along with 11 others, was convicted along with four other policemen by the High Court on May 4. One of the convicts, policeman Idris Abdul Sayed did not appeal against the conviction order.
The bench refused to go into the merits of the matter saying Bhagora was the supervising officer in the case and everything happened under his nose. Bhagora's lawyers had argued that he got caught in the web of circumstances and had no direct role in the incident.
A total of seven persons -five policemen and two doctors - were held guilty by HC under Sections 218 (not performing their duties) and 201 (tampering of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
According to the prosecution, on March 3, 2002, Bilkis Bano's family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra riots. Seven members of her family were killed while Bilkis, who was five months pregnant at the time, was gang raped.