Supreme Court grants bail to 2 convicts in Bilkis Bano gang rape case

The Supreme Court has granted bail to two convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang rape case, taking note of their 17 years in prison and the grounds raised in their appeals against conviction. The order comes more than two years after the court overturned the remission granted to 11 convicts in the case.

A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale ordered the release of Bipinchand Kanaiyalal Joshi and Pradip Ramanlal Modhiya on October 28. The two had challenged the Bombay High Court’s 2017 order upholding their conviction and life sentences.

“The appellants have been under incarceration for a period of more than 17 years, and also the fact remains that one of the appellants (Joshi) has a severe handicap. Certainly, there are issues to be decided in the appeal, both on fact and law,” the bench said.

The court also noted that one of the appellants was not named in the first information report and was implicated nearly three years later. Bail has been granted subject to conditions to be imposed by the trial court.

Gujarat’s remission order overturned

The two men were among 11 convicts sentenced in 2008 for gang-raping Bilkis Bano, who was three months pregnant at the time, and murdering seven members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter, during the Gujarat riots.

The Gujarat government released all 11 men in August 2022 after granting them remission. However, the Supreme Court quashed the decision in January 2024, ruling that Gujarat did not have the authority to grant remission because the trial had been transferred to Mumbai. The court also held that its 2022 direction to Gujarat to consider remission had been obtained by suppressing material facts.

CBI probe and trial in Mumbai

Bano was 21 when she was gang raped during the riots that followed the burning of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra in February 2002.

The Supreme Court ordered a CBI investigation in December 2003 and transferred the trial to Mumbai in August 2004. Joshi and Modhiya filed their appeals years after the 11 convicts were released in 2022. Following the remission order being set aside, the convicts returned to jail in Gujarat.