From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: A Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana on Tuesday agreed to hear the plea against grant of remission to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
It took the decision, taking the note of submissions by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who had appeared for Zakia Jafri, widow of slain Congress MP, and lawyer Aparna Bhat on the Apex court asking he Gujarat government to consider the plea of remission to 11 convicts sentenced to life imprisonment.
“We are only challenging the remission and not the court order. The Supreme Court order is fine. We are challenging the principles on the basis of which the remission was granted,” Sibal said.
Bilkis Bano, who was pregnant at the time, was gangraped and her three-year-old daughter Saleha was among 14 killed by a mob on March 3, 2002, in Dahod during violence that broke out across the state after the Sabarmati Express was attacked in Godhra and 59 passengers returning from Ayodhya were burnt to death.
###
