Bilkis case: Gujarat gets 2 weeks to act against cops

The Supreme Court on Friday gave the Gujarat government two weeks to complete disciplinary action against police officials found guilty by the trial court and the Bombay High Court in the 2002 post-Godhra Bilkis Bano gang-rape case.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjiv Khanna asked the Gujarat government to inform it about the action taken and posted the next hearing for April 23.

The court said that it would also hold a hearing on Bilkis Bano's plea for exemplary compensation as she had declined the Gujarat government's offer of Rs 5 lakh interim compensation.

The top court had in the last hearing sought the Gujarat government's response on the departmental action taken against the policemen convicted in the case.

Bilkis Yakub Rasool was 19 years old and pregnant when she was gang-raped during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The horrifying incidents occurred in Randhikpur village near Dahod on March 3, 2002 when she and her family was attacked by a mob.

Only Bilkis Bano and her two relatives, Saddam and Husain, survived the savagery. Her mother, sister, minor daughter and other relatives were killed.

--IANS

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