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AMN / WEB DESK

ELEVEN CONVICTS serving life imprisonment in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case from the 2002 Gujarat riots were freed from the Godhra sub-jail on Monday after a state government panel approved their application for remission of sentence, according to senior officials.

Gujarat Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Raj Kumar told The Indian Express that the application for remission was considered due to the “completion of 14 years” in jail and other factors such as “age, nature of the crime, behaviour in prison and so on”.

The governments at the Centre and Gujarat — both run by the BJP — seem to differ in how to treat rape convicts, evident in the release of 11 men, who were serving life imprisonment for the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The 11 convicts who were granted premature release are Jaswantbhai Nai, Govindbhai Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radheshyam Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt, and Ramesh Chandana. Radheshyam Shah, the convict whose plea for premature release paved the way for all the 11 life sentence convicts to walk out of jail, said he feels happy to be released.

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