Police deployed amid uncertainty over surrender of Bilkis Bano gangrape convicts

Dahod (Gujarat): No information has been received yet about the surrender of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case after the Supreme Court quashed the Gujarat government’s decision to grant them remission, but a police force remains deployed in the area where they live to maintain peace, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The convicts, however, are “not incommunicado” and some of them are visiting relatives, said Dahod Superintendent of Police Balram Meena.

“Police have not received any information (regarding their surrender), and we have not received the copy of the (Supreme Court) judgment. The convicts are natives of Singvad taluka where police were deployed since Monday morning, before the judgement was pronounced, to maintain law and order and ensure that communal conflict does not break out,” he said.

“The convicts are not incommunicado, and some of them are visiting their relatives. We have no information and have not received any order copy, but police remain deployed in the entire Randhikpur police station area,” Meena said.

Bilkis Bano, then 21 years old and five months pregnant, was raped while fleeing after communal riots broke out in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter and six other family members were killed.

The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the remission granted to them while slamming the Gujarat government for abusing its discretion. It ordered all the convicts, who were released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022, back to jail within two weeks.