Supreme Court no to stay on IPS officer’s conviction

New Delhi: Observing that there is no urgency in the matter, the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the conviction of IPS officer R.S. Bhagora, who was sentenced in the Gujarat riots ‘Bilkis Bano Gangrape case’.

A vacation bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Deepak Gupta told counsel for the petitioner that since the convicted officer had already undergone the sentence, there is no need to stay conviction at this stage.

The counsel said that if the conviction is not stayed, he will be terminated from the service as per service rules, and that the court should grant stay on the conviction. The bench, while refusing to grant early hearing, told the counsel the fine amount is only Rs 15,000. It posted the matter for listing in the second week of July.

According to the prosecution, on March 3, 2002, Bilkis Bano’s family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur village near Ahmedabad during the post-Godhra riots, and seven members of her family were killed. Bilkis Bano, who was five-month pregnant at the time, was gangraped. The convicts had, however, contended that all evidence in the case was fabricated by the CBI and the fact that Bilkis gave birth to a child after the incident proves she could not have been gangraped.

The trial court acquitted the accused. On appeal by the prosecution, the Bombay high court on May 4 reversed the findings and convicted Bhagora, currently serving in Gujarat, and four other police officers. The high court, however, released them by imposing a punishment of sentence already undegone. Besides five police officers, the high court convicted two doctors as well. The present appeal by Bhagora is directed against this judgement.