Bilkis Bano rape convict granted five-day parole shortly after historic SC verdict

VADODARA: Just 15 days after the surrender of the 11 convicts in the Godhra gang rape case, one of the convicts Pradeep Modhiya, a native of Randhikpur in Dahod, was granted parole by the jail authorities following the instructions of the Gujarat High Court. Pradeep was granted parole for five days to attend the death rites of his father-in-law.

Justice MR Mengdey considered the parole application on the 5th of February. Modhiya had asked for a 30-day parole. In the application, it was pointed out that the authorities had certified that the behaviour of the accused was good in jail and he had surrendered on time as per the court order.

Earlier in the affidavit submitted by the Gujarat government in the Supreme Court, Modhiya, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Bilkis Bano case in January 2008, was on parole for 1041 days. He was also allowed 223 days of other holidays during this period.

Following the Supreme Court's ultimatum, all the convicts involved in the Bilkis Bano case surrendered at Godhra sub-jail on January 21 at midnight. The historic verdict of the Supreme Court was the annulment of the Gujarat government's decision to temporarily release the convicts who were sentenced to life imprisonment.

The state government had released the accused in May 2022 under the commutation policy of 1992. Bilkis Bano thus had to reach the apex court to upend the lower court sentence.

In 2002, the then-21-year-old Bilkis, who was five months pregnant was gang raped by the accused in the terrible riots that shocked the nation. Bilki’s three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Saliha and mother were killed in the attack. On January 21, 2008, the CBI Special Court in Mumbai sentenced all the accused to life imprisonment.