AMN
The Supreme Court today refused to stay the conviction of an Police officer in the sensational 2002 Bilkis Bano case.
A vacation bench of Justices A K Sikri and Deepak Gupta said that there is no urgency for hearing the matter as the convicted officer has already undergone the sentence. The bench, however, listed the matter for hearing in the second week of July .
Officer R S Bhagora, currently serving in Gujarat, has been convicted along with four other policemen by the Bombay High Court recently after the trial court had acquitted them.
Along with five policemen, two doctors were also convicted by the Bombay High Court on 4th of this month in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case.
Even as the vacation bench refused to stay the conviction, counsel pleaded if notice could be issued to CBI on plea for the stay of conviction, the court said neither.
The CBI had investigated the case.
Bhagora’s counsel told the bench that his client has already undergone the jail sentence and if conviction was not stayed then he would lose his job.
The Bombay High Court while convicting Bhagora along with four other cops and two medicos had awarded them jail sentence that they had already undergone and imposed a fine of Rs 15,000.
The Bombay High Court on May 4 while rejecting CBI’s plea seeking the death sentence for three of the 11 convicts who were awarded life imprisonment by the trial court in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case had set aside the acquittal of five policemen and two medicos.
The High Court convicted the five policemen as CBI had challenged their acquittal including that of two medicos by the trial court.
They were acquitted by the trial court in January 2008.
The policemen were charged with tampering of evidence by fudging documents and compromising the inquest panchnama (diary).
Bano was 19 years old and pregnant when she was subjected to the horror during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The horrifying incidents occurred in Randhikpur village near Dahod on March 3, 2002 when Bilkis Bano and around a dozen of her family members were attacked by a mob. Many of those attacked were killed.
Only Bilkis Bano and two relatives, Saddam and Husain, survived the savagery. Her mother, sister, minor daughter and other relatives were killed.
Holding them guilty of murder, gang rape and raping a pregnant woman, the trial court by its January 21, 2008 verdict had sentenced 11 to life imprisonment.
Those sentenced to life imprisonment included Jaswant Nai, Govind Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radhyesham Bhagwan Das Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt and Ramesh Chandana.
The CBI had moved the High Court seeking death sentence for three – Govind Nai, Sailesh Bhat and Jaswant Nai. Bhatt was was accused of killing Bilkis Bano’s 3-year-old daughter by pounding her head with a stone, resulting in her instant death.