Bilkis Yakoob Rasool alias Bilkis Banu is often described as the living tragedy of communal carnage of 2002 in Gujarat. When she was raped by fellow villagers on March 3, she was five months pregnant. In the violence that followed, she lost 14 relatives, including her three-year-old child, mother and two sisters.A resident of Randhikpur of Panchmahals district in central Gujarat, Bilkis accused villagers Jaswant Nai, Govind Nai and Naresh Moriya of raping her. Having registered an FIR, the police went slow on the investigation and allegedly even coerced Banu into withdrawing her statements. Eventually, the case was closed on “technical reasons”.However, when this came to light, some social activists sought NHRC’s intervention and Harish Salve took the case to the Supreme Court, demanding a CBI probe. Accepting the demand, the apex court handed over the investigation to the central agency in December 2003. This is the only case of Gujarat riots which has been handed over to the CBI.The CBI found out that the local police had dumped bodies of her relatives after applying salt to speed up decomposition. Some of the bodies were exhumed and sent for forensic test. Six policemen, including one DSP and an Inspector, were chargesheeted for messing up the investigation. As many as 20 accused, including the policemen, are lodged in the prison in Mumbai, where the trial of the case is going on.The case was transferred to Mumbai on Bilkis’ plea, only the second case after the Best Bakery to be transferred outside the state. Bilkis is the sole witness in the case.
