No information about surrender of convicts in Bilkis Bano case: Official

A senior police official in Dahod has said they have not yet received any information about the surrender of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case after the Supreme Court quashed the Gujarat government's decision to grant them remission.

A police force remains deployed in the area where the convicts live to maintain peace, he said.

The convicts, however, are "not incommunicado" and some of them are visiting relatives, Dahod Superintendent of Police Balram Meena said on Tuesday.

Bilkis Bano, then 21 years old and five months pregnant, was raped while fleeing after communal riots broke out in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident in 2002. Her three-year-old daughter and six other family members were killed.

The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the remission granted to the 11 convicts while slamming the Gujarat government for abusing its discretion.

It ordered all the convicts, who were released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022, back to jail within two weeks.

"Police have not received any information (regarding their surrender), and we have not received the copy of the (Supreme Court) judgment," Meena said.

The convicts are natives of Singvad taluka where police were deployed since Monday morning, before the judgement was pronounced, to maintain law and order and ensure that communal conflict does not break out, he said.

"The convicts are not incommunicado, and some of them are visiting their relatives. We have no information and have not received any order copy, but police remain deployed in the entire Randhikpur police station area," Meena said.