Bilkis Bano case convicts are under 'police watch', not missing: official

Dahod: A senior police official in Dahod district of Gujarat on Friday said all the convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case were under “police watch”, and they have not been missing.

The Supreme Court earlier in the day refused to give more time to surrender to the 11 convicts in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in Gujarat.

“They have been under police watch ever since the SC gave its verdict (on January 8, quashing the remission granted by the Gujarat government). We contacted all of them on that day itself and it did not appear that they had any intention of going incommunicado after the verdict,” said Assistant Superintendent of Police, Limkheda division, Bishakha Jain.

The convicts belong to Singvad and Randhikpur villages in Singvad taluka of Dahod.

“They knew that they had to surrender, and they voluntarily came to the police station after the SC order (of January 8) to inform us about their whereabouts. It is not true that they have gone missing,” said the IPS officer.

The Supreme Court on January 8 asked the convicts, released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022, to surrender before jail authorities by January 21. On Friday, the court refused to grant them more time.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that the reasons cited by applicants to seek postponement of surrender and report back to jail “have no merit inasmuch as those reasons in no way prevent them from complying with our directions.”

The convicts had cited reasons such as health issues, impending surgery, marriage in the family and harvest work.