Clarion India
GODHRA — All eleven convicts in the Bilkis Bano case surrendered before the Godhra sub-jail in Gujarat’s Panchmahal district on Sunday, 21 January, minutes before the deadline imposed by the Supreme Court ended.
“All 11 convicts have surrendered before jail authorities late Sunday night,” local Crime Branch inspector NL Desai told news agency PTI.
This comes two days after the apex court dismissed a batch of petitions filed by 10 of the 11 men convicted in the case, seeking more time to surrender.
The convicts had cited reasons such as health issues, impending surgery, marriage in the family and harvest work and sought more time to surrender, according to media reports.
The Supreme Court noted that the reasons cited by applicants to seek postponement of surrender and report back to jail “have no merit”.
The 11 convicts are Bakabhai Vohania, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Govind Nai, Jaswant Nai, Mitesh Bhatt, Pradeep Mordhiya, Radheshyam Shah, Rajubhai Soni, Ramesh Chandana and Shailesh Bhatt.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while trying to escape the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in February 2002. — (With agency inputs)
