As SC reverses release of Bilkis Bano convicts, who is BJP MLA and remission panel member C K Raulji?

Besides Raulji, the JAC had three BJP members: Murlidhar Mulchandani, former president of Godhra municipality who was a witness in the Sabarmati Express train burning case of February 2002; Kalol MLA Suman Chauhan; and Sneha Bhatia, secretary of the party’s Godhra city unit.

The only remission petition to be placed before the JAC for review, it was challenged before the Supreme Court in December 2022 by Bilkis Bano while Raulji was in the midst of campaigning for the Assembly polls. Raulji was at the centre of controversy when he referred to the released convicts as “Brahmins with good sanskar”.

“We took the decision on the basis of a Supreme Court order. We were asked to look at their (convicts’) behaviour and decide (on their early release),” Raulji said at the time. “We asked the jailer and learnt that their behaviour was good in the prison… also (some of the convicts) are Brahmins. They have good ‘sanskaar’ (values).”

On the campaign trail in 2022, Raulji maintained his stand but avoided queries after news breaks of the appeal filed by Bilkis in the Supreme Court. “What the JAC recommended was as per the remission policy of the state,” he had said.

Asked if the decision to release convicts charged for gang rape and massacre could send out the wrong message to society and other rape-accused serving similar sentences of imprisonment, Raulji said at the time, “That is right and possible, but none of the committee members felt so. We have only taken a decision as per the process and guidelines of the state government. We did not see which caste or creed the convicts belong to. None of the convicts are known to any member of the committee.”

He added, “It was a very practical discussion on the application which was before us. What happened back then was in the heat of a communal riot. They are not hardened criminals.”

Raulji enjoyed the support of the 22% Muslim voters in his constituency but his role in the JAC and subsequent remarks may have alienated the community. While he won the Godhra seat in 2017 by just 258 votes, in 2022, he won by a margin of more than 35,000 votes.

During the 2022 polls, a senior BJP leader from Gujarat said, “It is true that Raulji’s influence on some of the minority pockets has dented. But the BJP won the seat in 2017. We rely strongly on the strength of the party. There is no denying that his overall prominence in Godhra will still benefit the party, not just as the candidate but as a leader.”

A close aide of former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela, Raulji began his political career in the Janata Dal, winning the 1990 Assembly polls from Godhra. He joined the BJP in 1991 and won the Assembly bypoll from the seat that year. He also won the seat on a BJP ticket in 1995. Raulji followed Vaghela when he floated the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) that year.

In 2002, the BJP won the seat in the aftermath of the riots. With the RJP subsequently merging with the Congress, Raulji went on to win the 2007 and 2012 Assembly polls on a Congress ticket. He has thrice been a Cabinet Minister.

Considered to wield major influence, Raulji is credited to have turned the tables on the Congress-AIMIM and Independent candidate alliance in the municipal elections of February 2021. The AIMIM bagged seven seats in the 44-seat Godhra civic body. The BJP and Independents won 18 seats each. Although the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party initially formed a board with the help of Independents and the Congress, which got a single seat, the situation changed by July when the BJP returned to power with the help of two Independent candidates, including the municipality president.

The other JAC members

The eight-member committee, which met four times in 2022, was headed by Panchmahal District Magistrate (and Collector) Sujal Mayatra and also included Superintendent of Jail M N Rathwa.

Two of the BJP’s four JAC members were women – Kalol MLA Suman Chauhan and Sneha Bhatia, secretary of the party’s Godhra city unit. Both Chauhan and Bhatia were “in agreement” to prematurely free the 11 convicts, leading to a “unanimous decision”, according to Raulji.

Chauhan was a BJP MLA (2017-’22) and the daughter-in-law of former Panchmahal MP Prabhatsinh Chauhan.

Murlidhar Mulchandani, the fourth BJP member of the panel, was the party’s Godhra district unit general secretary in 2002. He was one of the eye witnesses to testify on the roles of politicians, including Mohammad Husain Kalota, the president of the Godhra municipality, and several councillors, in the Sabarmati Express train burning that killed 59 people returning from Ayodhya.