SC rejects pleas of convicted cops, docs
CONVICTS ARGUED THAT THEY COULD BE HAULED UP FOR NEGLIGENCE AT BEST BUT NOT FOR CONCEALING EVIDENCE
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed appeals of two doctors and four policemen, including an IPS officer, challenging their conviction in the 2002 Bilkis Bano rape case.
The apex court noted that there was no reason to interfere with the Bombay HC holding them guilty for tampering with evidence to protect the prime accused. “We do not want to hear this further. It’s better we say nothing about the case,” a bench of Justice SA Bobde and Justice LN Rao said rejecting the argument that the policemen and doctors could at best be hauled up for negligence but not for concealing evidence.
Bilkis, who was five months pregnant at the time of the incident, was gang-raped while six other members of her family managed to escape the mob that attacked them during the postGodhra riots.
IPS officer R S Bhagora, currently serving in Gujarat, is one of the officers to be convicted. He may not go to jail because he has already spent one-and-a-half years of sentence. However, he is likely to lose his job since he is now a convict in a criminal case.
Commenting on his role, the SC said he was the in-charge of the area where the incident took place and had failed to respond to district magistrate’s letters asking him to probe the incident properly. “You never responded to the letter,” the bench told his counsel, senior advocate K Vishwanathan who argued Bhagora was never the investigating officer of the case.
The bench came down heavily on the doctors when their counsel got up to argue the case. “You never performed your role as medical officers. You could not see anything on the (victim’s) body and you say the medical report was prepared a behest of doctors,” the court said.