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2002 RIOTS
Bano to get Rs. 50 lakh compensation
Bilkis Bano
Bilkis Bano -- whose gangrape
and family's massacre became
one of the worst instances of
the brutality of the 2002 riots in
Gujarat -- will receive a
compensation of Rs. 50 lakh from
the state government, the
Supreme Court ordered today. Bilkis Bano's family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur, a village near Ahmedabad, during the postGodhra riots on 3 March 2002. Fourteen members of her family were murdered. The youngest of them was Bilkis Bano's three-yearold daughter Saleha, whose head was smashed with a rock. Bilkis Bano, who was pregnant at the time, was gang raped. She survived only because the men left her for dead. In 2008, 11 men were convicted for the rape and given life imprisonment by the Bombay High Court. But no action was taken against the police officers who had tried to derail the investigation into the case by fudging evidence and influencing witnesses even though they had been convicted by the court. Bilkis Bano's lawyer had told the Supreme Court that four of the officers had retired and a fifth - IPS officer RS Bhagora - was about to. But no disciplinary action had been taken against them. The top court had ordered action and directed the state government to file a report. Today, the Gujarat government informed the top court that the pension of the four retired officers has been blocked. The senior officer, Deputy Commissioner RS Bhagora, who is still serving, is being demoted. In its judgment, the high court had ordered the five policemen to pay a fine Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 5,000. But they were not given any prison term since they had already spent time in jail as undertrials.
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