CBI, Mumbai court's change in stance led to early release of convicts, SC told

A second opinion by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Mumbai trial court, suggesting a complete turnaround, led to the premature release of one of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case, the Supreme Court was informed on Thursday.

- Abraham Thomas

Documents were adduced before a bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan to show that there were two opinions each from CBI and the Mumbai trial court before the convict, Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah, was released by Gujarat government. Shah was one of the 11 convicts sentenced to life in 2008 for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members, and who were released prematurely in August 2022.

While the first opinion of trial court judge, who convicted 11 men in the case, declined to sign off the remission request stressing that the crime was committed only because the victim belonged to a "particular religion", the second opinion of the same court in June 2022 left it up to the Gujarat government to decide the remission plea as per the 1992 policy.