'I am shocked that...': Sharad Pawar slams PM Modi over release of Bilkis Bano convicts

New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday (September 10, 2022) slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the release of convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case and said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shown the country how it defines honour for women. In a series of tweets, Pawar, who was re-elected as NCP president for four years at a convention in New Delhi on Saturday, cited Prime Minister Modi's August 15 speech to attack him.

"I am shocked that on August 15, the Prime Minister of the country, while addressing the countrymen from the Red Fort, talked about women's honour and two days later the BJP government in the prime minister's home state reduced the sentence of those who committed atrocities against Bilkis Bano and her family," Pawar said in Hindi.

उस गुजरात में बिलकिस बानो नाम की बहन पर जो अत्याचार किए गए, उसके बालबच्चों पर अत्याचार किए गए। उनकी हत्या की गई, उनके परिवार के लोगों की हत्या की गई, ऐसे गलत काम में जो लोग शामिल थे, उनकी सजा कम करने का काम भारतीय जनता पार्टी की गुजरात सरकार ने किया। — Sharad Pawar (@PawarSpeaks) September 10, 2022

"The BJP has shown to the people of Gujarat and the rest of India how it defines honour for women," he added.

प्रधानमंत्री जी ने जो महिला सम्मान की बात की वह सम्मान की व्याख्या क्या है यह भारतीय जनता पार्टी ने गुजरात और देशवासियों के दिखाया है। ऐसे कई प्रश्न समाज के कई वर्गों के सामने हैं।

— Sharad Pawar (@PawarSpeaks) September 10, 2022

11 men convicted in the 2002 case of Bilkis Bano's gang-rape and murder of her seven family members during the Gujarat riots walked out free from the Godhra sub-jail last month after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. They had completed more than 15 years in jail.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court this week said that it will hear after three weeks the pleas challenging the remission of sentence and release of the 11 convicts.

The apex court also asked the counsel for the Gujarat government to place before it the relevant records within two weeks.

Earlier on August 25, the top court had sought responses from the Centre and the Gujarat government to a petition challenging the remission granted to the 11 convicts in the case. The court had issued notice on a plea filed by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, journalist Revathy Laul and activist Roop Rekha Rani.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five-month pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.

(With agency inputs)