Randhikpur, Dahod (Gujarat):
Just across the road from Bilkis Bano’s house is a fireworks stall that does good business for Diwali. It belongs to Radheshyam Shah, who raped her and killed her relatives, but is now taking his life back.
She doesn’t live here anymore.
She lives in fear, away from the village to avoid further danger. All the convicts have homes in and around the village of Randhikpur in Gujarat’s Dahod district, which has a population of just 4,000.
“We are innocent. Have you seen an uncle and cousin rape someone in front of each other? Is that happening in the Hindu community? No, Hindus don’t do that,” argued Govind Nai, one of 11 life sentences in the Gujarat riot case. of 2002, who were prematurely released by the state and central governments of the BJP.
DailyExpertNews has discovered that Govind Nai and several others among these men allegedly threatened witnesses while on parole. However, they were released for “good behavior”. They spent nearly three years on such paroles before being fully released on Independence Day, the day Prime Minister Modi spoke of “respecting women” in his Red Fort speech.
Govind Nai is said to have threatened two people who testified against him in the Bilkis Bano case in July 2017. He didn’t want to talk about it or ask questions.
“Just get lost in my village,” he said when DailyExpertNews went to his house earlier this week. His father was also present at the family home, but refused to speak.
Bilkis Bano has never come to live in the village since that night in 2002. Her house is now a shop, which she and her family have rented out to a Hindu woman who sells clothes.
A multi-storey house just in front of Bilkis Bano’s house is the home of the convict Radheshyam Shah.
His younger brother, Ashish Shah, has been selling crackers at a stall in front of it. “Radheshyam no longer lives here,” he claimed.
Radheshyam Shah and another convict, in addition to Ashish, are named in an FIR for assaulting a woman while she was on parole. Ashish Shah said FIR is “baseless”. He spoke no further.
Complainants in that case, Saberaben Ayyub and Pintu Bhai, Muslim residents of the Hindu-majority village, stand by their charges but say they now live in fear.
Another convict, Rajubhai Soni, was at his jewelry store, but left as soon as he saw cameras.
DailyExpertNews tried to access officials who were part of the process that approved the early release of these men, but they did not respond. The district magistrate did not respond, while the Superintendent of Police, who also approved the release, disconnected after DailyExpertNews requested a response.
Bilkis Bano, then 21 years old and five months pregnant, was gangraped and her three-year-old daughter was one of 14 people killed by a mob in Dahod on March 3, 2002 in violence that erupted across the state after a train was attacked in Dahod. Godhra and 59 passengers, mostly ‘kar Sewaks’, were burned. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the prime minister at the time.
Since then, the BJP has not lost power in the state. The next municipal elections are scheduled for the end of this year.
Bilkis Bano had released a statement after the men were released saying: “The trauma of the past 20 years has washed over me again…I am still sedated”.
“My grief and my wavering faith are not only for myself, but for every woman who struggles for justice in the courts. No one asked about my safety and well-being before making such a great and unjust decision. I appeal to the government from Gujarat, please undo this damage,” she said.
In the meantime, petitions have been submitted to the Supreme Court against the release.