Tales Of Courage & Capitulation In A Lawless Fiefdom !

BY R.K.MISRA

Seventeen years after the incident and six months after the apex court ordered relief for the victim, the BJP government in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat figured in a callous disregard for compliance.

Successive BJP governments in Gujarat have dragged their feet, particularly in matters relating to the minority community, even when the highest court of the land has unequivocally ruled it’s mind. This  was once again brought into sharp focus on September 30,2019 when the Supreme Court directed the Gujarat government to implement within two weeks an order which it had given almost six months ago in the case of Bilkis Bano, a gangrape victim of the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.

On April 23,2019,  a bench headed by Chief justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising judges Deepak Gupta and Sanjeev Khanna had ordered the Gujarat government to pay Rs 50 lakhs as payment to Bilkis Bano, provide  government job and adequate accommodation.

Five months later,   Bilkis was back before the apex court  through her advocate Shobha Gupta with a contempt petition that stated that despite the order the Gujarat government had not provided anything to her. The reply by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the compensation amount of Rs 50 lakhs had not been provided for in the victim compensation scheme of Gujarat and more over that the state  proposed to file a review plea did not cut ice  with the bench headed by CJI Gogoi and comprising justices S.A.Bobde and S.A Nazeer. Mehta sought more time to provide a job for Bilkis but the judges were unrelenting. 

Even the time of two weeks  is  not needed, the bench stated. Mehta had to give an undertaking to the court that their order would be complied within two weeks.

Bilkis was  19 years old  and five months pregnant when  her family was attacked at Randhikpur village in Dahod district of Gujarat as they were trying to escape rioters. She was gang-raped and 14 members of her  family including her two year old  child whose head was smashed against a rock, were killed. She survived only because the rioters left her for dead. Though married, she had been living a nomadic existence , being forced to change 25 houses in a span of 15 years due to threats by convicts in the case  who were out on parole.

Vivek Dube who later retired as Andhra Pradesh police chief in 2015, was the first head of the CBI crime team which took charge of the case under Supreme Court orders in December 2003. His investigations led a special court to sentence 11 men for raping Bilkis and killing her family members but acquitted seven people. The CBI approached the Bombay High Court for more stringent punishment while the convicted sought quashing of the special court order .

The High Court in May 2017 convicted the seven as well. The convicted  then approached the Supreme Court  but their appeals were dismissed. Among those convicted by the High Court in the case were five policemen and two doctors who had botched up the initial investigation.

Interestingly, of the five cops,  four-a deputy superintendent of police, two inspectors and a constable -had retired and the fifth a deputy commissioner of police, R.S.Bhagora was dismissed  from service only a day before  his retirement on May 30, this year. Despite the fact that his name figured in the Bilkis Banu case investigations by the CBI, Bhagora who was a state cadre officer was promoted to the IPS cadre in 2006 and until the day of his dismissal was  enjoying the key posting of deputy commissioner of police(traffic) in Ahmedabad. The Supreme Court had on July 10, 2017 dismissed the appeals by Bhagora and other cops  stating that there was clear-cut evidence against them. And despite this, the government waited till virtually his last day in service to dismiss him, the apex court order for action against the errant officer notwithstanding.

While Bilkis, battling an intransigent state administration, has stoically roughed it out for almost  17 years and managed to secure justice , the patience of an elderly mother fighting for justice for her dead daughter, Ishrat Jahan killed in an alleged fake encounter in Ahmedabad,  has run aground.

On May 1, Shamima Kauser, the mother of Ishrat jahan submitted a letter to the CBI court in Ahmedabad stating  that the slow and tiring pace of the wheels of justice have  sapped her strength and in frustration and despair she has decided she will not contest the case any further.

College student Ishrat  Jahan and three others--- Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar---- were killed on the outskirts of Ahmedabad by a team of the  Ahmedabad crime branch then led by D.G.Vanzara on June 15, 2004 in what was later termed as a fake encounter. The cops claimed that  they were part of a Lashkar-e-toiba terror module out to kill then chief minister Narendra Modi.

Shamima’s letter to the CBI of September 18 conveys  that  she no longer intends to remain a party to the judicial proceedings. The letter is a sad commentary on the prevailing state of affairs. ”Iam heart-broken and my spirit shattered at the perpetuation of this culture of impunity. I have thus instructed my counsel Vrinda Grover that I have lost the will to fight". 

"The long drawn and labyrinthine  judicial process has exhausted and frustrated me. I had never imagined seeking truth and justice could be such an uphill, arduous and life consuming task and I now feel helpless and hopeless. All the accused cops are out on bail and some have even been reinstated in service despite facing charges of murder and conspiracy”.

She has also mentioned about the Gujarat government’s refusal to sanction the trial of the accused and said that ‘it is the job of the CBI to prosecute the 11 accused officers. This culture of impunity needs to be eradicated to protect vulnerable citizens. Shamima’s letter was delivered during proceedings on the discharge applications filed by four police officers.

This case is a classic example of how the shifting pendulum of political power brings about corresponding changes in key cases with such overtones. Metropolitan magistrate S.P.Tamang who submitted an enquiry report that said the encounter was fake  was subjected to an enquiry on his conduct on orders from the Gujarat High Court which was however set aside later  by the apex court. Satish Verma , a senior Gujarat cadre IPS officer  who was appointed to an SIT on the encounter was shunted to the North- East after he too revealed that the encounter was fake.

On the other hand, the accused officers in the case close to the BJP have had the benefit of the government’s largesse. Retired IPS D.G. Vanzara and N.K.Amin  were discharged  from it  after the Gujarat government refused sanction to prosecute them. The CBI made it known that it would not challenge the order. Earlier in February 2018, senior police officer  and former Gujarat DGP P.P. Pandey was discharged from the case while the discharge plea of four remaining senior police officers   has been moved. “I know for a fact that my daughter was killed in a premeditated manner. I have been up against some very powerful police officers who enjoy the patronage of the powers that be.”.

Nothing sadder or truer could be said.