I/III. http://www.timesnow.tv/india/video/bombay-high-court-convicts-police-and-doctors-in-bilkis-bano-gangrape-case/60442
Bombay High Court convicts police and doctors in Bilkis Bano gangrape case [Video: 2.16-min. clip] May 04, 2017 | 16:43 IST | SOURCE : AFP Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday convicted five police officers and two doctors of tampering with evidence in the gang rape of a pregnant woman and the murder of her family during one of the worst incidents of religious unrest since independence. Bilkis Bano was gang raped and seven of her relatives were killed during religious riots that broke out in the western state of Gujarat in 2002. At least 2,000 Muslims were hacked, beaten, shot or burnt to death in the violence, which erupted after a group of Hindu pilgrims died in a train fire wrongly blamed on a Muslim mob. On Thursday a court in the western city of Mumbai overturned an earlier acquittal of the seven accused following an appeal by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). It also upheld the convictions of 11 Hindu men convicted of rape and murder in the case. In a statement to the media, Bilkis expressed satisfaction that officials who had "emboldened, encouraged, and protected" her attackers had finally been convicted. "My rights, as a human being, as a citizen, woman, and mother were violated in the most brutal manner, but I had trust in the democratic institutions of our country," she said. "Now, my family and I feel we can begin to lead our lives again, free of fear." Bano and two of her children were the only survivors in a group of 17 Muslims who were attacked in 2002. Her three-year-old daughter was among the victims. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the state's chief minister at the time, was accused of turning a blind eye to the violence but was cleared of any wrongdoing in 2012. The state government has been accused of dragging its heels in prosecuting those accused in the riots. "As per my knowledge, this is the first time that police officials have been convicted in any case pertaining to the Gujarat riots," special counsel for the CBI Hiten Venegavkar told AFP. "No fresh trials will be carried out and the seven convicted (today) can appeal to the Supreme Court of India," Vengavkar added. II/III. https://scroll.in/article/836647/the-daily-fix-bilkis-bano-verdict-is-a-reminder-of-state-complicity-in-the-2002-gujarat-riots Bilkis Bano verdict is a reminder of state complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots an hour ago. Ipsita Chakravarty A rare case One of the many horrors that came into public view after the Gujarat riots of 2002 was the Bilkis Bano case. On March 3, 2002, 19-year-old Bano and her family had been trying to flee the riots in a truck. They were set upon by a mob of men who gangraped Bano, pregnant at the time, killed her three-year-old daughter and 14 others in her family. Fifteen years later, those responsible for the brutalities have been dealt with by the Bombay High Court, which upheld 12 life sentences in the case. “Somewhere, somehow, justice can prevail,” Bano said in a statement on Thursday, even in times “when the secular values of our country” are in peril. Attention has been centred on the life sentences, and the fact that the court dismissed the Central Bureau of Investigation’s plea to convert three of these into death penalties. But the court also made another significant decision. It overturned the acquittals, handed down by a Mumbai sessions court, to five members of the Gujarat police. The court found them guilty of carrying out a “dishonest investigation”, of various “acts of omission and commission”, by which they tried to “screen the perpetrators of the crime” and “gagged the mouth of the prosecutrix”. When Bano filed a first information report on March 4, 2002, she had named her rapists, but these names were left out of the complaint. She and her family were also harassed by the Gujarat crime investigation department. In 2003, the Supreme Court shifted the case out of the state and into Maharashtra, stopped the investigation by the state crime branch and directed the CBI to take it up. The Bombay High Court’s verdict now is yet another reminder of chilling state complicity in the violence of 2002. Survivor accounts depict a state police that was indifferent at best or guilty of deliberate inaction, standing by and allowing the violence to take its course. The complicity carried on into the afterlife of the horrors, as evidence was destroyed or suppressed, cases were closed, voices of dissent within the force were silenced. How high up did the lines of accountability reach? Were the police were acting under political pressure? These questions have now passed into the realm of speculation. The Supreme Court’s decision to move the trials out of the state was acknowledgment that the system was tainted. But the Bombay High Court’s verdict holds specific members of the force accountable. It is a rare case. III. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-activist-teesta-setalvad-welcomes-judgement-on-bilkis-bano-case-2427706 Activist Teesta Setalvad welcomes judgement on Bilkis Bano case Thu, 4 May 2017-08:23pm , ANI Commenting on the recent verdict of the Bombay High Court on the Bilkis Bano rape case, social activist Teesta Setalvad on Thursday asserted that convicting five police officers and rejecting the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) plea for death penalty to three convicts was a welcome decision. ?The judgement of Division branch of Bombay High Court recognising the culpability of police officers, who had been acquitted by the lower court and rejecting the CBI?s plea for death penalty to three out of eleven convicts in the case is a welcome decision,? social activist Teesta Setalvad told ANI. She further said that these police officers had destroyed evidence, which would have helped in more convictions in the case. The Bombay High Court had earlier ruled out death penalty to three out of 11 people accused of in the case and the murder of her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The CBI said that five new convicts in this case were police officers and were convicted under Indian Penal Code (IPC) 201 and 218. The Bombay High Court had also set aside acquittal of five persons, including doctors and policemen, and convicted them for tampering of evidence in the Bilkis Bano case. The CBI had appealed against the acquittal of five Gujarat police officers who connived with the convicts by fudging documents and compromising the inquest report. Last year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named it as the rarest of rare cases and that the death penalty must be awarded to three convicts. The 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in 2008, had moved the Gujarat high court against their conviction. The Supreme Court later moved the case from Gujarat high court to Bombay court, which upheld the conviction of the 11. On March 1, 2002, Bilkis Bano was gang-raped and left for dead alongside 14 members of her family, including her 3-year-old daughter, during the Gujarat riots. She was then five months pregnant, when Hindu rioters attacked her in Vadodara. (This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.) -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
