Bilkis wants death penalty for her rapists

NEW DELHI: Hours after the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for the four rape accused in the Nirbhaya gangrape case, Bilkis Bano also demanded the same punishment for those who gangraped her and killed 14 members of the family during the Gujarat riots of 2002.

“If we have to fight more, we will. We also want to get the same justice,” Bano told HT on Friday.

A day earlier, the Bombay high court had refused to hand down the death penalty to three of the 11 people convicted of raping her. Instead, the court upheld the life sentences for all 11 accused, besides convicting 5 policemen and two doctors of complicity.

“In the Nirbhaya case and other cases as well, the court has given the death penalty. No other woman in India should have to face such a ghastly crime. It will act as a deterrent to future crimes – irrespective of their religion,” her husband Yakub said. The couple said they will consult the lawyers for their future course of action.

Bano hit the headlines after she was gangraped while fleeing the post-Godhra riots with her family.

They were waylaid by a mob who then gang-raped the fivemonths pregnant Bano and killed 14 members of her family. Bano’s three-year-old daughter was among those killed.

Bano, however, expressed satisfaction over Thursday’s conviction of the policemen and doctors who had been acquitted earlier.