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Bilkis Bano gangrape case: All 11 convicts surrender before Godhra jail within deadline set by Supreme Court

All the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case surrendered at 11:45 pm on Sunday before the Godhra jail authorities, within the deadline set by the Supreme Court. 

Local Crime Branch inspector NL Desai stated that all 11 convicts have surrendered before the jail authorities late Sunday night. The Crime Branch inspector mentioned that the convicts reached the jail before midnight of January 21, which was the deadline set for them to surrender. 

Earlier, the Supreme Court had refused to extend the time to surrender and had asked them to do so by the set deadline. The convicts had sought an extension of time due to ill health, harvest of winter crops and son’s marriage. The apex court said that the reasons cited by the convicts lacked merits and those in no way prevent them from complying with the Court’s direction. 

On January 8, the Supreme Court had quashed the Gujarat government’s decision, taken in August 2022 to prematurely release 11 convicts facing life terms. The top court ordered that all the convicts, who were released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022, back to jail within two weeks. 

Reportedly, in August 15, 2022, the 11 convicts, who had spent 14 years in jail as part of a life sentence, were granted premature release after the Gujarat government accepted their remission applications as per its 1992 policy, mentioning their good conduct during imprisonment. 

The Supreme Court in its judgement had said that the Gujarat government had no jurisdiction to entertain the applications for remission of sentences and only the government of the state where the offenders were sentenced was comptant to consider an application for remission and pass an order. 

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and 5 months pregnant when she was gang raped while trying to escape from the horror of communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in 2002. 

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