Justice (retired) Abhay Thipsay of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday said, “remission does not mean they are not guilty of the crime [gangrape of pregnant Bilkis Bano and murder of her daughter along with other family members], why felicitate them with garlands and sweets.”
Justice Thipsay along with justice V.M. Kanade had in 2011 rejected temporary bail of one of the convicts Radheshyam Shah accused of gang-raping a five-month pregnant Bilkis Bano, killing her three-year-old daughter and seven members of her family in 2002 post-Godhra riots.
He said the “Supreme Court has acted very systematically” and granted remission to all the convicts based on an old 1992 policy that allowed early release of convicts given life imprisonment.
