Shabana Azmi at Saturday’s protest. (PTI Photo)Protesting against the release of the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case, student and women’s groups gathered at Jantar Mantar Saturday in a gesture of solidarity.
At the protest were ex-MP and actor Shabana Azmi, All India Progressive Women’s Association secretary Kavita Krishnan and scientist-filmmaker Gauhar Raza.
The All India Students’ Association, also part of the protest, called the release of the convicts a “slap on the constitutional and secular fabric of the country”.
Protesters raised slogans and held up placards that read ‘rapists released = justice revoked’. The protesters also accompanied Raza in a rendition of ‘Chand Roz Aur’ by poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
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Krishnan said the accused “have been given a reward, not a remission”. “For doing this, they were garlanded and sweets were distributed,” she said.
Azmi said, “How has this happened? How did the Gujarat government give this order? We want to know this… as women and as Indians, we have to show that this cannot be tolerated.”
Delhi AISA secretary Neha said, “Normally we don’t give notice for protests in Jantar Mantar. This time, we did a day before and were denied permission. So we delayed the event by a week and gave six days’ notice to police about the event.”
Meanwhile, in an open letter to the Chief Justice of India, 134 retired bureaucrats have urged the Supreme Court to “rectify” this “horrendously wrong decision”.
“The case was a rare one because not only were the rapists and murderers punished, but so, too, were the policemen and doctors who tried to tamper with and erase evidence to protect the accused and cover up the crime,” they wrote.
The group comprises former Union Secretaries, DGPs, ambassadors, Chief Secretaries, and judges. Among them are former Home Secretary G K Pillai, former Foreign Secretary and NSA Shivshankar Menon, former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, former Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar, former External Affairs Secretary and former High Commissioner to the UK Nareshwar Dayal.
Pillai told The Sunday Express: “While the Supreme Court has since taken cognizance of the issue, we are concerned at this travesty of justice.”
Habibullah said: “For this to have happened on Independence Day. You release those who have been convicted of rape and murder — not accused, but convicted… is that a way to celebrate India’s freedom?”