Bilkis Bano case: 5 convicts move Supreme Court seeking more time to surrender

Days after the Supreme Court quashed the remission the Gujarat government had granted them five of those convicted of gangraping Bilkis Bano and massacring seven members of her family during the 2002 communal riots moved the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking more time to surrenderThe top court had on January 8 annulled the remission the Gujarat government granted to the 11 convicts in the highprofile case while slamming the State for being complicit with an accused and abusing its discretion It ordered the convicts who were released prematurely on Independence Day in 2022 to go back to jail within two weeksThe reasons for seeking extension of the deadline to surrender include failing health impending surgery sons marriage and harvesting ripe cropsThe matter was mentioned before a bench of Justices B V Nagarathana and Sanjay Karol which asked the registry to place their applications before Chief Justice D Y ChandrachudIt is stated by the respondents that applications have been filed for an extension of time to surrender and report to jail Since the bench has to be reconstituted registry to seek orders from CJI for reconstitution of the bench since time expires on Sunday the bench saidSenior advocate V Chitambaresh appearing for some of the convicts mentioned the matter and sought its urgent listing on Friday since the deadline to surrender expires on January 21The five convicts who have sought relief are Govind Nai Pradeep Mordhiya Bipin Chandra Joshi Ramesh Chandana and Mitesh BhattThe respondent himself is an old man who is suffering from asthma and is in really poor health It is further submitted that the respondent was recently operated upon and had to undergo an angiography It is also submitted that the Respondent is yet to undergo another operation for the treatment of Hemorrhoids Nai said in his plea He also cited his bedridden 88yearold fathers ill health to seek reliefIn his plea seeking more time to surrender Chandana said he was looking after his crops and that were ready for harvest He said he is the only male member in the family and has to take care of the cropsFurther applicants young son is of marriageable age and the applicant bears the responsibility to look after this affair and with kind indulgence of this Honourable Court may even complete this affair Chandana saidMordhiya submitted he requires regular consultation with doctors after he underwent a lung surgeryAnother convict Mitesh Bhatt said his winter crops are ready for harvest and he needs to complete the task before surrenderingJoshi has cited a recent leg surgery to seek reliefThe 11 convicts released prematurely were Bakabhai Vohania Bipin Chandra Joshi Kesarbhai Vohania Govind Nai Jaswant Nai Mitesh Bhatt Pradeep Mordhiya Radheshyam Shah Rajubhai Soni Ramesh Chandana and Shailesh BhattExcoriating the Gujarat government for remitting their sentences the apex court had said it usurped the power of the Maharashtra government to grant remission The Bilkis Bano case was transferred from a Gujarat court to a court in Mumbai and the Supreme Court said the Maharashtra government was vested with the power to grant remissionBilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gangraped while trying to escape the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident in February 2002 Her threeyearold daughter was among the seven family members killedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever