Eleven persons sentenced to life imprisonment in Bilkis Bano gangrape case

n a path-breaking move, all the eleven people convicted in the much publicised Bilkis Bano case were sentenced to life by Mumbai Sessions Court on Monday.

''Justice may have been done but my family and I are still living in fear,'' these were Bilkis Bano's words at her first public appearance in New Delhi.

Earlier in the day, Bilkis had asked for reassurance from the Gujarat government who she said had let her family down and had sharp observations about how policemen and upholders of the law had conspired to subvert the legal process.

The accused have been pleading with the court for leniency and earlier families of the accused cried and refusing to leave court.

A special court in Mumbai on Friday had convicted 11 people of rioting and criminal conspiracy as well as rape and murder and a policeman for framing a false complaint and refusing to register Bilkis's case.

Bilkis Bano was raped and her three-and-half-year-old daughter along with her eight members of family were murdered by a mob in Randhirkapur village on March 3, 2002, in the wake of the Godhra riots in Gujarat.

The trial in the case was shifted to Mumbai in 2003 on the Supreme Court's direction.

Courtesy:ndtv.com
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