Bilkis Bano case: Social activists to hold 180-km march to protest release of 11 convicts
Ahmedabad, Sep 16: A group of social activists will take out a 'padyatra' (foot march) from Randhikpur in Dahod district of Gujarat to Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad to protest the release of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case.
The 11 were released from a jail in Godhra on August 15 after they were granted remission by the Gujarat government.
The activists will march under the banner of 'Hindu Muslim Ekta Samiti' and cover the 180-kilometre distance between September 26 and October 4, with social activist Sandeep Pandey and MLA Jignesh Mevani set to participate along with 25 others, organising committee member Kalim Siddique said.
The release of the convicts is a matter of shame in a country that is identified the world over for its spirituality and the values and virtues of Mahatma Gandhi, the group said in a release.
"It is a shame that Gujarat, which produced a global stalwart like Mahatma Gandhi, is silent today on people who have committed heinous crimes," it added.
There was need to speak out "so that humanity survives, so that moral values and ethical standards are respected, so that innocent people feel safe and criminals are discouraged", the group said.
It said the march was to tell Bilkis Bano that "we're sorry" and to hope that such a fate does not befall anyone else.
Bilkis Bano was gang-raped and several of her kin were killed in the post-Godhra riots that took place in the state in 2002.
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UP man gets life term for electrocuting mentally challenged wife to death in Bareilly
Bareilly (UP) (PTI): A local court here has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for murdering his mentally challenged wife by repeatedly electrocuting her while she was tied to a cot, lawyers said on Thursday.
Additional district government counsel Harendra Singh Rathore said Additional Sessions Judge Avinash Kumar Singh on Wednesday convicted Vinod Kumar (45) for killing his wife, Satyavati, in Chaina village of Bareilly district and imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on him.
According to the prosecution, he was allegedly frustrated with his wife Satyavati's mental illness and often assaulted her.
Rathore said the prosecution examined nine witnesses to establish the charges against him.
As per court records, on the night of May 1-2, 2022, when Satyavati was asleep, Vinod tied her hands and legs to a cot using ropes and then connected an aluminium cable to an electric board to repeatedly administer electric shocks to her.
"She writhed in pain, but the accused continued to electrocute her until she died," the prosecution said.
The court observed that the murder was carried out in an inhuman manner.
After committing the crime, the accused threw the rope and cable on the roof and left for work at a brick kiln around 2 am to create a false alibi.
He later tried to mislead the police and the victim's family by claiming that Satyavati, whose mental condition was unstable, had accidentally died by suicide after grabbing a live electric wire.
However, the victim's brother, Sanjeev, a resident of Shahjahanpur district, suspected foul play and lodged an FIR under sections 498A (husband subjecting wife to cruelty) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code at Nawabganj police station.
During the trial, the prosecution relied on the post-mortem report prepared by Dr Faraz Anwar, who stated that multiple electrocution marks found on different parts of the victim's body could not have been self-inflicted.
The police also recovered the rope and electric wire used in the crime on the accused's identification, officials said.
