Niece’s wedding, second Bilkis Bano case convict moves HC for parole

Chandana’s lawyer Khushbu Vyas submitted before the court of Justice Divyesh Joshi that wedding festivities will begin from March 5. The court went on to instruct the registry “to verify and list this matter before the appropriate court”.

According to the Gujarat government’s affidavit before the Supreme Court in October 2022, Chandana was out of jail for 1,576 days (1,198 days of parole and 378 days of furlough) – the maximum among the 11 convicts in the case – during the period of his incarceration since 2008.

Details of his leaves show that between January and June 2015, a 14-day furlough had turned to 136 days of leave owing to Chandana surrendering late by 122 days.

Chandana and 10 other life term convicts in the Bilkis Bano case had surrendered shortly before midnight on January 21, after the SC on January 8 annulled the remission and premature release granted to them by the Gujarat government on August 15, 2022.

The Gujarat government had released the convicts as per its 1992 remission policy, based on a May 2022 SC order in a petition filed by one of the convicts, Radheshyam Shah. Bano had challenged the state government’s decision before the SC.

Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gangraped while fleeing with her family from Randhikpur during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Fourteen 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter, were also killed.