Bilkis Bano case: In the midst of the preparation of the inauguration of the Ayodhya temple on 22nd January, most of the population is happy about it. And has been waiting for this day for a very long time. New names of railway stations are being introduced. The city is being decorated with the diyas and a lot of preparation is being done for the day. People around the country are preparing themselves for the day advance bookings of hotels and trains have been done to witness the fruits of the struggles involved in the making of the Ayodhya Ram Temple. Invitations have been given and the streets are decorated and the chance of Jai shree ram are flooding around the city of Ayodhya. But that’s not the only thing that is making news nowadays related to it. There has been a darker side to this which will be discussed in this article. And that is the Bilkis Bano case which is also becoming the headlines of the news media nowadays. There has been positive news in regard to it which came a few days back.
Bilkis Bano case is in the news for some days because the 11 culprits of the case have been given remission by the Gujarat government after they made their appeal but the Honorable Supreme Court of our India has dismissed the decision and criticized the decision made and therefore ordered the 11 culprits to surrender by the fortnight.
To as we know that to understand the present situation and how it has occurred what were the reasons for that this kind of situation took place to know everything about something we need to understand the history related to it what were the reasons with led to this kind of situation so by keeping this thing in mind, let’s understand the history of the Bilkis Bano case in the following article.
History of Bilkis Bano case
This case dates back to the time when there was a lot of tension going on due to the Ayodhya Ram Temple and the Babri Masjid dispute Although this topic alone has a very long history about which we will not be going in detail and mainly focus on the Bilkis Bano case.
The Godhra train case
On 27 February 2002, godhra train was returning back from Ayodhya and was carrying around 59 Hindu pilgrim and karsevaks and this train was put on fire by some people which killed the car sevaks and led to a very serious issue in which the Hindu Muslim fight began as many people of Hindi community retaliated by attacking Muslim families living in Godhra as it was considered that the Muslims were the one who put fire on Godhra train ,this dispute escalated and caused a lot of human crisis and one of the victim of this was Bilkis Bano.
Bilkis Bano was a Muslim woman who lived in the village Randhikpur. After the train incident , Bano family moved away from their village but this didn’t help them as on March 3, 2002 was gangraped and she was 5 months pregnant and 7 members of her family were killed by the accused. Then on March 4 2002 she filed an FIR in the Limkheda Police station but the FIR didn’t give the appropriate news and the accused names were also not stated. After that she was shifted to the Godhra relief camp where she gave her statement and was recorded and investigation started after which the dead bodies of her 7 family members were found without skulls.
Buddy police investigation was not at all up to the point and they were not supporting Bilkis Bano through the whole investigation and influencing the whole process of Investigation therefore the case was given to the CBI for the further investigation. A lot of pressure was also being made by the accused on the Bilkis Bano she was being threatened to take her case back. After that on April 19, 2004 the CBI presented a chart sheet to the cjm Ahmedabad against 20 accused which included 6 police officers and two doctors. Due to the excess pressure and the interference by the accused, the SC took the decision of shifting the case from Gujarat to Mumbai to have transparency and protection for Bilkis Bano.
After 6 years of struggle justice finally came to bulk is Bano when on January 21,2008 the 11 accused was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and rape where as the police officers were dismissed and their retirement pensions were cancelled. The CBI also demanded for the death sentence to be given to Jaswantbhai Chaturbhai Nai, Govindbhai Nai and Shailesh Chimanlal Bhatt but the Bombay High Court refused this demand. Then on April 23 2019 the supreme court directed the payment of rupees 50 lakh to Bilkis Bano against the petition she filed in 2017 and also directed the state government to provide her employment and government accommodation at a place of her choice and this was definitely her win.
After some time due to the Amrit kal in which the central government gave the provision to release the culprits with good conduct during the punishment period. And because of this one of the culprits of the Bilkis Bano case, Radheshyam Shah in May 2022 asked for remission from the Gujarat High Court. And after seeing this The Other culprits also filed for the remission and they got released on August 15 2022.
After knowing about the whole matter, Bano again filed a writ petition against the release of the culprits in September 2022.
And after 2 years of that filing of the petition in January 2024 the Supreme Court has squashed the decision of their remission and have ordered them to surrender within 2 weeks. And again Bilkis Bano got the justice which she deserved. All those culprits tried to manipulate the decisions of the high courts and try to present them in their favor which was also highly criticized by the supreme court. The Gujarat government was also being criticized by the supreme court and therefore the Supreme Court has definitely tried and accomplished the goal of having faith in them.
After learning about this whole matter we need to find the cracks and need to learn a lot of things from this entire case.
Firstly we need to understand that why all the issues or any kind of problem leads to the exploitation of women in our country or I would say in the world why are the first victims of all the brutalities that are happening in the society they are considered to be the very easy target whenever such situations come into the news full stop and this is not the only case in which we have seen that women are being exploited to such an extent and not getting the justice which day deserve and even if they are getting it it is taking a very long time the exploitation which happened with Bilkis Bano was in 2002 but she got justice after a lot of efforts in the year 2008 and Ever After that she has to struggle when her culprits were released. And definitely this is not the only case in which women have suffered like this. A few months back we heard about the violence against the women of Manipur that was such a heinous act which the whole country and the whole world had to witness. We just can’t let this happen every single time we need to protect women from such depressing actions. If you are not able to protect our women then how could we be able to do anything?
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And secondly we need to understand that through the whole process and the things which have happened in this case recently have definitely questioned the way the accused and the culprits are manipulating the whole process and turning them in their favor, the recent actions and activities definitely show and showcase the ways these culprits are using the system and get away with it but at the same time the supreme court is being very vigilant and taking the appropriate actions to provide justice ,it is definitely working as the third pillar of government of the state and therefore it is a very important part of this country so that the people do not lose their faith when ever they want justice in our country .Supreme Court is setting the right example of upholding the constitution and the law of this country which is of the utmost importance.
And lastly, I would definitely say that we human beings are the Social beings, we are not animals and therefore we need to live in this society with some dignity and integrity rather than just being Enemies of each other. We need to understand the simple fact of socializing and helping each other in this world and should stop violence and atrocities at such levels. We need to respect women who constitute 50% of the population of this country, to be valued just as men and should not be treated as an object of women and their superiority. We need to believe in humanity and should behave in such a way that people also believe in humanity. We should create a society where everyone feels that they are at a safer place rather than being threatened because of their own society and people.
