On August 15, when India was celebrating 75 years of Independence, Bilkis Bano’s world fell apart, once again. Her long-legal battle against the 11 men convicted of gang-raping her, and murdering at least seven members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter in the Gujarat riots of 2002, had come to naught, as they walked out of jail in Godhra. The accused, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment, were released after the state government approved their application for remission of sentence, as part of a special remission policy of 1992, to mark the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. This, despite the central government, in its June 2022 order instructing all state and UT prisons that the remission policy would not be applicable to convicts of rape. 

Bano, who is still on anti-depressants, is fearful for her family again, Delhi-based Supreme Court lawyer Shobha Gupta, her advocate in the case since the start, tells mid-day in a phone interview. Gupta, who is also experiencing a fresh toll on her mental and emotional health since the development, has agreed to speak, after several failed attempts. “Honestly, I don’t believe it [remission of 11 convicts] can be treated as a precedent for other rapists and murderers in jail. It is a wrong decision, which cannot be negatively applied or become law of the land.”