Horrendously wrong: 134 ex-bureaucrats write to CJI over Bilkis Bano convicts’ release
India Today
Former bureaucrats wrote to CJI Lalit over the Gujarat government’s order granting the release of 11 men convicted in the Bilkis Bano rape case.
More than 130 former civil servants wrote an open letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) against the recent release of 11 men who were convicted in the Bilkis Banor gangrape case. The former bureaucrats urged CJI Uday Umesh Lalit to rectify this "horrendously wrong decision".
All 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano rape case walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. The move had drawn widespread criticism.
On Saturday, 134 bureaucrats requested the CJI to rescind the order of remission passed by the Gujarat government and send the convicts back to jail to serve out their life sentence.
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Former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, former Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar, former foreign secretaries Shivshankar Menon and Sujatha Singh and former Home Secretary G K Pillai were among the 134 signatories to the letter, written under the aegis of the Constitutional Conduct Group.
In the latter, the former bureaucrats have said they are disappointed with the Gujarat government's decision to release the culprits of these heinous crimes.
"Like the overwhelming majority of people in our country, we are aghast at what happened in Gujarat a few days ago, on the 75th anniversary of India's Independence,” the letter read.
