Supreme Court upholds conviction of two docs, four cops in Bilkis Bano case

A bench of Justice S A Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao said the convicts were rightly held guilty by the High Court after being "unreasonably acquitted" by the trial court in the case despite there being clear-cut evidence against them.

The Bombay High Court had on May 4 reversed the trial court verdict acquitting the accused, including senior police officer R S Bhagora, and convicted  them. 

The High Court bench had convicted seven persons - five policemen and two doctors - under sections 218 (not performing their duties) and section 201 (tampering of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The apex court had on May 30 refused to stay the conviction of Bhagora. One of the convicts is dead.

The CBI had filed  an appeal in the High Court seeking harsher punishment of death for three of the convicted persons on the ground that they were the main perpetrators of the crime during the post-Godhra Gujarat pogrom..

During the incident in March 2002, Bilkis Bano was 19-year-old who along with her family were fleeing a mob on a truck. Bilkis was five months pregnant. But they were waylaid and she was gang-raped while her family members, inlcuding the daughter, were killed.