India: Modi government approved release of men convicted of raping Muslim woman

India’s national government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the release of 11 men convicted and sentenced to live imprisonment for gang-raping a pregnant Muslim woman and murdering 14 members of her family, according to court documents. 

The convicts were part of a Hindu mob who had attacked Bilkis Bano during religious riots in the state of Gujarat in 2002. They were released from prison on 15 August, India’s Independence Day, and were welcomed with sweets and garlands outside the prison.  

Their release triggered widespread outrage at the time, and was contrasted with Prime Minister Modi’s Independence Day speech in which he championed respect for women.

#Breaking: Gujarat Government tells the #SupremeCourt that its decision to release the convicts who gang-raped Bilkis Bano had the approval of the Union Home Ministry. pic.twitter.com/nWe0KNOQTA

— The Leaflet (@TheLeaflet_in) October 17, 2022

The letter approving their release was from India’s home ministry, headed by Amit Shah, a close Modi associate and Amit Shah, and was uploaded online by the legal site The Leaflet.

It was not clear at the time that the central government had okayed their release. 

According to Indian news outlet NDTV, the convicts had been out of jail for years on parole before they were officially released this August. They had served 14 years in prison.

India’s home ministry’s approval came on 11 July, only two weeks after the regional Gujarat government had applied for their release. 

The 11 men who gangraped a pregnant Bilkis Bano, smashed to death her 3 year-old daughter, killed members of her family, gangraped her female family members have been released by the Narendra Modi government citing ‘good behaviour’ pic.twitter.com/97qsf54oOv

— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) October 18, 2022

Bilkis Bano was five months pregnant when her family - including her 3-year-old daughter - were killed and she was brutally gang-raped by the men during the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002.

At the time, the state was led by Narendra Modi, who has repeatedly been accused of both incitement and inaction as sectarian mobs were murdering and looting across the state. 

Modi, who became Prime Minister in 2014, has repeatedly been accused of fomenting an environment of hatred and Hindu nationalism in India seeking to alienate the country’s Muslim minority.