Bilkis Bano gangrape: Cops, doctors guilty of evidence-tampering should not be in service
The Supreme Court said the policemen and doctors found guilty of tampering with evidence in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang rape must be removed from service. It also gave the Gujarat government four weeks to verify its stand. The instructions were issued after Bano’s lawyer told the court that the policemen who botched up the probe were back on duty even as she asked for a higher compensation. The court asked the Gujarat government if a disciplinary inquiry had been initiated against the seven persons. The government said the men had served their sentence but the court questioned its move to reinstate the police officers. Bano and 16 members of her family were attacked by a mob on March 3, 2002 at Randhikpur village in Gujarat’s Dahod district as communal violence swept the state. Seven members were killed and 19-year-old Bano, who was five months pregnant, was gang-raped. Six other members managed to escape the mob. The high court had on May 4, 2017 upheld life sentences to 11 men for raping Bano and convicted seven people for tampering evidence. -PTC News
