Bilkis Bano Case: All 11 Life Imprisonment Convicts Walk Out Of Jail

All 11 life imprisonment convicts in Bilkis Bano gang-rape case were freed from the Godhra sub-jail under the Gujarat government's remission policy, according to senior officials. Bilkis, a 21 year old was gangraped and her three-year-old daughter Saleha was among 14 killed by a group of people on March 3, 2002, in Limkheda taluka of Dahod district. Bilkis was pregnant at the time.

"A committee formed a few months back took a unanimous decision in favour of remission of all the 11 convicts in the case. The recommendation was sent to the state government, and yesterday we received the orders for their release," said Sujal Mayatra, Panchmahals Collector, who was presiding over the panel, as per PTI.

The trial in Bilkis Bano's case started in Ahmedabad. When Bano expressed apprehensions over witnesses being harmed, the top court, in August 2004, transferred the case to Mumbai. A special CBI court in Mumbai had sentenced the 11 accused to life imprisonment on the charge of gang rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano's family on January 21, 2008. The Bombay High Court had late their conviction.