Gujarat riots: Justice after 17 years

A three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, also asked the state on April 23 to provide her with a government job and accommodation of her choice, within two weeks, while seeking details of action taken against errant police officers and government officials involved in harassing Bano and obstructing justice in her case for 17 years

In a landmark verdict that provides justice and perhaps closure to one of the worst-afflicted victims of the Gujarat riots of 2002, the Supreme Court directed the Gujarat government to give INR 50 lakhs as compensation to Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped, while 14 of her family members, including her three-year-old daughter, were murdered, making her case among the worst instances of brutality in the anti-Muslim violence under the watch of then state Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

A three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, also asked the state on April 23 to provide her with a government job and accommodation of her choice, within two weeks, while seeking details of action taken against errant police officers and government officials involved in harassing Bano and obstructing justice in her case for 17 years. The quantum of compensation is likely to set a precedent and provide a ray of hope for similar victims. Passing no strictures on the state government, the Chief Justice said there was no point looking at the past and said the need was to rehabilitate the victim who, according her lawyer, is living a dismal, nomadic existence.

‘This Is A Huge Landmark Victory,’ said activist Teesta Setalvad. “The court has awarded the sum as reparation, recognising her years of trauma.”

Bano’s lawyer Shobha Gupta told the Supreme Court in March that four errant officers had retired and a fifth - IPS officer RS Bhagora - would retire shortly, but no disciplinary action had been taken against them. The apex court ordered action against them and directed the state government to file a report. The BJP- led Gujarat government informed the bench that it had taken action against police officers involved, blocking the pension of four and demoting a fifth.

The judgement highlighted persistent efforts by the State of Gujarat to block the delivery of justice to the mostly Muslim riot victims.

Officially, the Gujarat riots ended with 1,044 dead, 223 missing, and 2,500 injured. Scores of women were raped and had appalling brutality inflicted on them, but have not come even close to getting justice.

At the end of her long and very arduous road to justice, Bano said she was just grateful that the country’s top court had acknowledged her pain. “No citizen should have to suffer at the hands of the state whose duty is to protect us,” said Bano at a press conference.

Since 2002, when she was left to die, and subsequently faced refusal to even get a police report registered, Bano’s trial moving from Ahmedabad to Mumbai and to New Delhi, from trial courts to the Supreme Court - involved fighting threats and serious intimidation. Bano said she was happy with the judgment and reiterated that she wanted justice, not revenge.

Gujarat Police initially dismissed her case in 2003, citing lack of evidence. That year, Bano approached the National Human Rights Commission and then the Supreme Court, which asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the matter. As in the case of most 2002 riot victims, Bano petitioned the Supreme Court to move the trial from Gujarat. In August 2004, the case was shifted to Mumbai. In 2008, a trial court in Mumbai convicted 13 people of criminal conspiracy, rape and murder, and sentenced 11 of them to life. But no action was taken against the policemen who had tried to derail the investigation into the case by fudging evidence and influencing witnesses.

Many other victims, including Zakia Jafri, wife of former MP Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in one of the worst incidents during those 2002 riots, the Gulbarg Society massacre, have yet to receive justice. The Supreme Court has, however, accepted Jafri’s plea to re-examine the clean chit given to Modi by a Special Investigation Team.

This was a case that divided India: Modi supporters say he had nothing to do with the riots, which were a backlash of collective Hindu anger against the killing of 56 Hindu activists in an arson attack on a train in Godhra in Gujarat; while his critics say he was implicitly guilty of inaction and delay in providing security and later relief to the victims.

Many Western countries, including the US, made Modi persona non grata but, once he became Prime Minister after a resounding election victory in 2014, Washington revoked the ban and he became a widely sought after leader in world capitals.