Efforts to undermine foundations of the Constitution must be thwarted: Karnataka CM

Aconvict in the case related to the gangrape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots has moved the Gujarat High Court seeking parole to attend a wedding in his family.

Rameshbhai Chandana approached the high court on Friday with a plea to be released on parole to attend his niece’s wedding.

Chandana and 10 others were sent back to jail last month after the Supreme Court struck down the remission granted to them by the Gujarat government.

Earlier, Pradip Modhiya, another convict in the case, was released from the Godhra district jail on parole from February 7 to 11 after the high court allowed his plea.

Chandana’s lawyer Khushbu Vyas told Justice Divyesh Joshi that his client wished to attend his niece’s wedding on March 5. The court then directed the registry ”to place the matter before the appropriate court (for hearing)”. As per the Gujarat government’s affidavit before the Supreme Court, Chandana had enjoyed parole for 1,198 days and a furlough of 378 days since his incarceration in 2008.

In August 2022, 11 convicts serving a life sentence were granted premature release from jail after the state government accepted their remission applications in keeping with its 1992 policy, citing their ‘good conduct’ during imprisonment.

The Supreme Court had last month quashed the remission of sentence of all 11 convicts.

The apex court quashed the remission order on January 8, ruling that the state government lacked jurisdiction to grant premature release to the convicts, as the trial in the 2002 case was held in Maharashtra.

The Supreme Court then ordered the convicts, who were released from Godhra district jail on Independence Day in 2022 after being in prison for 14 years, to return to jail within two weeks. They surrendered before the Godhra jail authorities on January 21.