The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Gujarat government to provide Rs 50 lakh compensation, a job and accommodation at the place of her choice to Bilkis Bano, who was raped during the 2002 Gujarat riots, Live Law reported. “Feel lucky that we are not observing anything against your government in the order,” Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi told Hematika Wahi, the counsel for the state.
Eleven men had raped Bilkis Bano during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Bano was 19 years old and pregnant at the time. Fourteen members of her family, including her three-year-old, were murdered by the rioters near Ahmedabad. Last month, the Supreme Court had ordered the Gujarat government to complete disciplinary action against police officers whom the Bombay High Court had convicted in the case.
Bano had also refused to accept the Rs 5 lakh compensation offered by the Gujarat government. The bench said it will hear Bano’s plea for enhanced compensation on April 23.
In July 2017, the Supreme Court had dismissed the appeals of two doctors and four policemen against their conviction by the High Court. “You all have been unreasonably acquitted by the trial court in the case despite there being clear-cut evidence against you,” the Supreme Court had told the convicts.
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