“Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and 5 months pregnant at the time when this heinous crime took place and to imagine her seeing her rapists walking free with impunity, then being garlanded and celebrated for release must have shattered her,” Kavitha wrote.
AMN / WEB DESK
Condemning the decision to release of those involved in the rape and murder in Bilkis Bano case, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader and MLC K Kavitha has urged the Supreme Court to intervene in this case and take immediate action.
Kavitha has written to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana to intervene and reverse the release of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case and save the nation’s faith in the country’s laws.
The TRS MLC from Nizamabad, who is also the daughter of chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, shared on Twitter the letter she had written to the CJI.
Kavitha said the release of the 11 rape and murder convicts from jail was based on the 1992 policy for remission but the states revised this policy in 2014 which makes the convicts ineligible for release.
She further wrote, “Crimes such as rape shake very core of our social conscience and seeing convicted rapists walk out freely on a day such as our independence day sends shivers down the spine of every woman and indeed every citizen who places their faith in the laws of the land and the justice system of our country.”
On Thursday over 6,000 citizens, including grassroots-level workers, women and human rights activists, urged the Supreme Court to revoke the remission of sentences for the 11 men. The release of the 11 men on Independence Day, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about empowerment of women during his address to the nation, have triggered a massive outrage across the country.
Meanwhile Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy has also accused the BJP government of setting a bad precedent by releasing 11 convicts of rape and murder in the Bilquis Bano case of Gujarat. Speaking to media persons in Kodad on Thursday, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that all 11 persons, released by the Gujarat government, were involved in the gang-rape of Bilquis Bano, who was then five months pregnant, and the brutal murder of seven members of her family in Randhikpur village of Dahod district of Gujarat. He said all the accused were convicted after a long battle involving the Supreme Court and an investigation done by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said that by ensuring the release of rape and murder convicts involved in the Gujarat riots of 2002, PM Modi and his party’s government in Gujarat have set a wrong example. Treating this as a precedent, other governments in the country would start releasing rapists and killers belonging to their parties. “PM Modi, who is against distributing freebies to the common people, can now promise freedom for all rapists and murderers if they join the BJP,” he said, adding that BJP would witness a surge in members with criminal backgrounds, especially those facing charges of rape and murder.