Bilkis Bano Case Brief: : The timeline, the key milestones

March 3, 2002: Bilkis, five months pregnant, raped and 14 of her family members killed by a mob.

March 4, 2002: Bilkis taken to Limkheda police station, FIR registered, but the fact that she was raped not stated, accused not named despite her identifying 12 of them who were residents of Randhikpur.

March 5, 2002: Bilkis taken to Godhra Relief Camp, where her statement is recorded by executive magistrate on instructions from then Panchmahal collector Jayanti Ravi. Seven bodies of her family members found in the jungle of Kesharpur.

POLICE RESPONSE

November 6, 2002: Police submits summary report ‘A’ stating that the case was true but undetected and the culprits were not found. Requests for closure of the case. However, court does not accept closure report and directs it to continue investigation.

February, 2003: Limkheda Police resubmits summary report ‘A’ requesting for closure of case, which is accepted by the court.

PROBE SHIFTED

April 2003: Bilkis approaches the Supreme Court praying that the Magistrate’s order accepting ‘A’ summary be set aside. She seeks CBI investigation.

December 6, 2003: Supreme Court orders transfer of investigation to CBI.

January 1, 2004: CBI DSP KN Sinha takes charge of the investigation from Gujarat Police.

February 1-2, 2004: Bodies exhumed for CBI probe – 109 bones found, skulls not found. Bombay HC later observed in its verdict that “it appears that at some point the heads were cut off”.

April 19, 2004: CBI files chargesheet before CJM Ahmedabad against 20 accused, including six police officers and two doctors who performed the post-mortem on the seven bodies on March 5, 2002.

CASE SHIFTS TO MUMBAI

August 2004: SC moves trial of the case from Gujarat to Mumbai and directs the central government to appoint a special public prosecutor.

January 21, 2008: Verdict passed by the Special Judge at Greater Mumbai. 11 convicted to life imprisonment for murder, rape; seven acquitted; two abated during trial due to their death.

2009-2011: Appeals filed by accused convicts as well as CBI. CBI seeks enhancement of sentence for Jaswantbhai Chaturbhai Nai, Govindbhai Nai and Shailesh Chimanlal Bhatt to death sentence. CBI also appeals against acquittal of eight others under Sections 201, 217 and 218 IPC (of which one expired during pendency of trial).

2016: Bombay HC begins hearing appeals.

May 2017: Bombay HC upholds life imprisonment conviction of the 11 by trial court, refuses to enhance punishment, additionally sets aside acquittal of seven — 5 police officers and two doctors — convicting them under Sections 201 and 218 of IPC, sentencing them to the period of imprisonment undergone by them along with fine.

APPEALS IN SUPREME COURT

July 2017: SC dismisses appeals by two doctors and four policemen against the Bombay HC conviction. One policeman did not appeal.

April 23 2019: SC directs payment of Rs 50 lakh as compensation to Bano along with directing the state government to provide employment and government accommodation at a place of her choice in a 2017 petition filed by Bano seeking compensation. She casts her vote in April 2019 for the first time in 17 years at Dahod.

April 23, 2019: Acting on the prayers in the 2003 transfer petition by Bilkis, where she had sought departmental action against the accused police officers, it is submitted by the state government that it has passed orders in relation to three of the convicted police officials, then retired, imposing penalty of a hundred percent cut of the pension that they were entitled to after their retirement. The Gujarat government also informs the court that it has recommended the punishment of demotion by two stages to convicted IPS officer RS Bhagora.

May 30, 2019: Bhagora dismissed by the Union Home Ministry a day before his retirement, which means he won’t get retirement benefits of a government employee.

May 2022: Convict Radheshyam Shah appeals against a July 17, 2019 order of the Gujarat High Court, which had ruled that Maharashtra would be the “appropriate government” to decide on his plea for remission on the ground that he had completed 15 years and four months of his life term awarded in 2008 by a CBI court in Mumbai.

May 13, 2022: A Bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Vikram Nath asks the Gujarat government to consider Shah’s application for premature release “within a period of two months”, as per the policy that was applicable in the state on the date on which he was convicted.

CONVICTS RELEASED

August 15, 2022: 11 convicts released from Godhra sub-jail on remission by Gujarat government, including Radhyeshyam Shah.

September, 2022: Bilkis Bano approaches the Supreme Court in a writ petition challenging the premature release of the 11 convicts.

January 8, 2024: Supreme Court quashes Gujarat government’s decision to grant remission to 11 convicts.