Bilkis case: Court begins final hearing on appeals by 11 convicts

The Bombay high court on Friday commenced the final hearing on the appeals filed by 11 people convicted in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gangrape case and also on the petition by the CBI, seeking death penalty for three of them.

Eleven men, who were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court on January 21, 2008, for gangraping Bilkis and murdering seven of her family members in the aftermath of the 2002 Godhra riots, had approached the High Court, challenging their conviction and sought quashing of the trial court’s order.

The CBI had also filed an appeal in the court, seeking death for three of the 11 convicts. A Division Bench of Justices VK Tahilramani and Mridula Bhatkar started the final hearing on the appeals, while rapping CBI counsel Hiten Venegaonkar for not being “prepared”. “You (Venegaonkar) are not prepared. Please take proper charge of the case. Read the case papers over the weekend. Prepare a chart of witnesses, victims, deceased persons, convicts and acquitted accused,” it said.