India’s Supreme Court orders 11 men convicted of murder and gang rape to return to jail after early release

New Delhi CNN —

India’s top court on Monday reversed a state government’s decision to release 11 men convicted of gang-raping a pregnant Muslim woman during Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002, and ordered for them to be sent back to jail.

The men were part of a Hindu mob sentenced to life in prison for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano, who was 21 years old and pregnant at the time. The same mob killed 14 members of her family, including her 3-year-old daughter.

They were released in August 2022 after serving 14 years of their sentence following a decision made by an advisory panel set up by the Gujarat state government, which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

But on Monday, India’s Supreme Court quashed that decision and ordered the men to report back to prison authorities within two weeks.

The Gujarat government was “lacking in competency” to pass the remission orders as the trial and sentencing happened in Maharashtra state, the court ruled. The court slammed the Gujarat government for abusing its discretionary powers in releasing the 11 convicts without authority.

Bano welcomed the ruling saying she “wept tears relief”.

“I have smiled for the first time in over a year and half. I have hugged my children. It feels like a stone the size of a mountain has been lifted from my chest, and I can breathe again,” she said in a statement.

When the convicts were released on remission in August 2022, Bano said she felt she had “exhausted her reservoir of courage” but she then found strength in the solidarity that came her way from thousands of people across the country.

“You gave me the will to struggle, to rescue the idea of justice not just for me, but for every woman in India. I thank you,” she