India’s Supreme Court has reversed the early release of 11 men convicted of gang rape
India’s Supreme Court on Monday reinstated life sentences for 11 Hindu men convicted of the gang rape of a Muslim woman, in a case that became a powerful symbol of widespread violence against Indian women and of communal tensions often exacerbated by Indian politicians.
The victim, Bilkis Bano, was three months pregnant when she and 15 members of her family tried to flee their village during Hindu-Muslim violence in the state of Gujarat, western India, in 2002. The then Chief Minister of Gujarat was Narendra Modi, who is now the Indian Prime Minister.
Ms Bano and her family were attacked by heavily armed Hindu rioters, who not only raped Ms Bano, but also killed her three-year-old daughter by smashing her head against a rock and raped her mother and a nephew.
On Monday, India’s Supreme Court said the Gujarat government had acted beyond its powers by granting the attackers early release from prison in August 2022. The court ordered the criminals, who were greeted with sweets and streamers by right-wing Hindu nationalists on their return home in 2022, to surrender within two weeks.
Vrinda Grover, a human rights lawyer based in New Delhi, said the court’s decision amounted to “a damning indictment of the state of Gujarat.”
The trigger for the 2002 riots, which left more than a thousand dead, most of them Muslims, was a train fire that killed dozens of Hindu pilgrims. Mr. Modi has long been accused of condoning or even encouraging mob violence, although the Supreme Court has acquitted him of the charges.
In 2008, a court sentenced eleven of the thirteen suspects in the Bano case to life imprisonment on charges of murder and gang rape.
When the government in Gujarat, led by Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, ordered the release of the convicts in 2022, it was widely seen as an attempt to rally the party’s Hindu right-wing base in favor the state elections. India’s Home Minister Amit Shah, considered Mr. Modi’s right-hand man, approved the Gujarat decision. The BJP went on to win the state elections.
After the 11 men were released, Ms. Bano said, “I will stand up and fight again, against what is wrong and for what is right.”
On Monday, Supreme Court judges wrote that they had considered whether a reduction in sentence was appropriate in cases of crimes such as those against Ms Bano. They said the men had lost their right to freedom after being convicted and jailed, and that the Gujarat government had not had the power to reduce the sentence because the trial had been moved from Gujarat to Mumbai.
“The primary function of the court is to uphold justice and the rule of law,” the judges wrote in an order. “Justice includes not only the rights of the convicted, but also the rights of the victims.”