Among the reasons cited by convicts seeking parole or temporary bail were hose-warming ceremony, son’s wedding and mother’s knee-replacement surgery.
Before walking free under the Gujarat government’s remission policy, some of the 11 convicts serving life imprisonment in the Bilkis Bano case took frequent paroles despite prosecution witnesses citing threats from them, reports The Indian Express.
Among the reasons cited by the convicts who approached courts seeking parole or temporary bail were hose-warming ceremony, son’s wedding and mother’s knee-replacement surgery. Some of their pleas were, however, rejected by courts who took note of the parole leaves they “enjoyed”.
In April this year, the Gujarat High Court rejected a petition by Radheshyam Shah who sought a 28-day parole for his “house-warming ceremony”. Rejecting his plea, the court noted that Shah had already spent two months on parole, from January 29 to March 30.
Earlier, Shah had applied for a three-month temporary bail for his “mother’s knee-replacement surgery” in 2011. In September 2011, a division bench of the Bombay High Court rejected and dismissed his plea, noting that he was “released on furlough in December 2010 and is due to be released on furlough leave in December 2011”.
It was Shah’s petition in the Supreme Court that led to the court directing the Gujarat government in May to consider and grant remission to the 11 convicts based on a 1992 policy that allows for early release of life-term convicts.
On August 15, the government of Gujarat, based on the “unanimous” recommendation of the Jail Advisory Committee (JAC) to grant them remission on grounds of “good behaviour’, released all the 11 convicts who had in 2008 been sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2002 case of Bilkis Bano’s gang rape and murder of seven of her family members during the communal riots.
In May 2019, the Gujarat High Court had rejected a plea by co-convict Keshav Vohania who had sought parole for his son’s wedding. Rejecting his plea, the court noted that he had already enjoyed parole for 90 das in a period of six months.
Between 2017 and 2020, witnesses and residents of Randhikpur village had written several complaints to the district administration, contending that the 11 convicts were “frequently out on parole” and “issuing threats” to the witnesses.
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 "Bilkis Bano case convicts")
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