Condemning the Gujarat government's decision to release 11 individuals who had been convicted for the gang-rape of Bilkis Bano, a statement signed by human rights activists, scholars and women's groups called on the Supreme Court "to undo this grave miscarriage of justice."
The statement, signed by around 6,000 citizens and groups such as the All India Progressive Women’s Association and Saheli Women’s Resource Centre, contrasted the reference to 'Nari Shakti' in PM Modi's speech on Independence Day with the Gujarat government's decision.
It read, “On the morning of August 15, 2022, in his Independence Day address to the nation the Prime Minister of India spoke of women’s rights, dignity and Nari Shakti. That very afternoon Bilkis Bano, a woman who embodied that ‘Nari Shakti’ in her long and daunting struggle for justice, learnt that the perpetrators who killed her family, murdered her 3-year-old daughter, gang-raped and left her to die, had walked free."
"No one sent her notice. No one asked how she, a gang-rape survivor, felt about the release of her rapists... it shames us that the day we should celebrate our freedoms and be proud of our independence, the women of India instead saw gang-rapists and mass murderers freed as an act of State largesse."Statement by citizens and rights groups condemning the release of the convicts