Bilkis Bano Case: 'Justice will be served only by hanging the culprits or keeping them in jail for the rest of their life', said the only eyewitness in the Bilkis Bano case.

The sole eyewitness of the Bilkis Bano case has said that those convicted of this heinous crime should be hanged or kept in jail for the rest of their lives, only then will justice be served. The eyewitness was seven years old when a mob attacked his cousin Bilkis and other members of the minority community in Limkheda taluka of Dahod district.

During the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning in 2002, 14 of them were killed by the mob. The eyewitness is now 28 and lives in Ahmedabad with his wife and five-year-old son. He said, “I endured the trauma of seeing my loved ones die in front of my eyes. I still wake up at night and cry because those moments haunt me even after so many years.”

On January 8 this year, the Supreme Court canceled the Gujarat government's decision taken in August 2022 to prematurely release 11 convicts serving life imprisonment in the Bilkis Bano gang rape and murder of 14 people.

The eyewitness asserted, “I felt very sad when they (the convicts) were released. Now I am relieved to some extent because he will be sent to jail once again. My mother and my elder sister were among the 14 people who were killed in front of my eyes that day.'' He said, ''All the culprits should either be hanged or kept in jail for the rest of their lives. Only then will we get justice. These people should never be freed again.”

It is noteworthy that after the Godhra train burning incident on February 27, 2002, riots broke out in various parts of the state.

To save themselves, a group of 17 people, mostly women and children, left Randhikpur village in Limkheda taluka of Dahod district and headed towards Deogarh Baria town through the forest, said a social worker who witnessed the incident. gone.

“This boy (eyewitness) and along with his mother and elder sister, Bilkis Bano was also in the group which was attacked by the mob on March 3,” the activist said on condition of anonymity. The mob killed 14 of those 17, including an infant. After that, the mob gang-raped Bilkis Bano."

He said, "The youth in the crowd tried to kill Bilkis and this boy but they survived. A 4-year-old boy also survived the attack because the youth in the crowd thought he was dead."

The boy spent some time in a relief camp in Godhra after the incident and was then shifted to a residential school in Kutch. The activist said that he was brought up in a residential school. There he became the guardian of the eyewitness.

“Since he was the only eyewitness. She testified before a special CBI court in Mumbai in 2005. His testimony proved important, as it matched the sequence of events narrated by complainant Bilkis Bano. He also identified four of the 11 accused during the hearing."

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