Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - The Supreme Court of India will hear a petition that questions why 11 men who were convicted of gang-rap...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - The Supreme Court of India will hear a petition that questions why 11 men who were convicted of gang-rapping a pregnant Muslim woman during Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002 in the western state of Gujarat were released last week.
Authorities in the Panchmahals district of Gujarat let the men go on Monday after thinking about how they behaved in jail and how much time they had already served since they were found guilty in 2008. But critics say that their release goes against the government's stated goal of empowering women in a country where violence against women is common and well-documented.
Tuesday, the Court verbally agreed to hear a Public Interest Litigation petition to overturn the state's remission order that let the men go free, said Kapal Sibal, an attorney for a group of women who want the order to be overturned.
Sibal said that Indian politician and Communist Party of India member Subhashini Ali, independent journalist Revati Laul, and Trinamool Congress Party member Mahua Moitra are among the women.
The petition says that the men should spend the rest of their lives in prison.
In 2002, there was a lot of violence in Gujarat, and most of the people who died were Muslims. It was one of India's worst religious riots.
After a train full of Hindu pilgrims caught fire, the fighting that went on for months began. Hindus said that Muslims started the fire, but Muslims said that the attack on the train was part of a plan to hurt their group.
During the riots, 11 Hindu men raped a Muslim woman who was pregnant, and her 3-year-old daughter was one of the 14 people killed by a mob.
At the time of the riots, Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat, and the state is still run by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Bilkis Yakoob Rasool, the husband of the woman who was raped, said earlier that the courts and the government didn't tell them that the men who were found guilty would be freed, and that it made him lose faith in justice.
