A day after he and 10 others were released from jail in the case related to the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots, convict Shailesh Bhatt claimed that they were 'victims of politics'.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh sought a detailed report from the jail chief on the whole issue.
Diwali celebrations have started in the United States from the iconic Times Square in New York, with the United States Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump celebrating the festival of lights at their residences on Friday.
In a quick disposal of a rape case, a local court on Tuesday convicted five accused of raping a 20-year-old German tourist in Chandigarh in September. Pankaj Punia, Manvir Singh Jolly, Harpreet Singh Dalli, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi and Sompal were booked for kidnapping the woman from outside a five star hotel here on September 28 and taking her to a farmhouse in Haryana's Samalakha area, where she was gang raped.
The 11 convicts on Monday walked out of the Godhra sub-jail after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy.
In an order passed on September 11, Justice Subodh Abhyankar of the high court's Indore bench made these strongly-worded observations while dismissing an appeal filed by a man against the lower court's sentence in the case of four-year-old girl's rape in 2017.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred to May 9 the hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the remission granted to the 11 convicts last year in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
A bench of justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna deferred the matter after lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay mentioned it saying it be heard on April 5 or 6 as it was unlikely to be heard during the day.
Amid the debate over the release of Bilkis Bano case convicts, the Madhya Pradesh government's proposed new policy provides for a life sentence till death for those held guilty for offences like gangrape and terrorist acts.
'The state of Gujarat was to my mind 'partisan and over enthusiastic' in the way it dealt with remission applications.'
Dominic Xavier offers his take on the Gujarat government's decision to release all 11 convicts sentenced to life imprisonment for gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven members of her family during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
"We find that there has been undue and unexplained delay by both the state and Central government in processing the mercy petitions," the court said.
The Delhi high court on Monday sentenced the prime convict in the 2002 Maulana Azad Medical College student rape case to life imprisonment. Observing that the accused Rahul had acted "not only as a beast but even acted savage," a bench headed by Justice Pradeep Nandrajog upheld the trial court verdict, which had sentenced him to life imprisonment. The court, however, acquitted the other convict Amit on charges of rape and directed the police to release him.
Actor Khushbu Sundar's tweet against the release of men involved in rape has set off a series of reactions and debate and her party the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday maintained that the release of 11 convicts by Gujarat in the Bilkis Bano case was as per law and there was absolutely no politics involved.
The parents of the victim doctor in the RG Kar hospital rape-murder case have alleged that the investigation is incomplete and several others involved in the crime are still at large. The court is set to deliver its verdict on Saturday, with Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer with the Kolkata Police, facing charges of committing the crime. The victim's parents expressed concerns about the presence of other individuals at the crime scene who remain unidentified. The CBI, which is investigating the case, has sought capital punishment for Roy, claiming he was the sole perpetrator.
Assam Congress spokesperson Reetam Singh was arrested on Saturday for a social media post questioning the status of cases registered against three senior BJP leaders, including a former state chief and two serving MLAs. The arrest came after a complaint by the wife of BJP MLA Manab Deka, who was mentioned in Singh's post. Singh's arrest was met with criticism from the Congress, with Deputy Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi alleging that Singh was "brutally dragged away" by police.
Eleven convicts walked out of Godhra sub-jail after the Gujarat government allowed their release on August 15 this year.
Prime accused Rahul and his accomplice Amit were convicted of raping a student of Delhi's Maulana Azad Medical College.
The fate of four convicts in the December 16 gang rape and murder case will be known on Friday with a Delhi court set to pronounce the much-awaited order on whether their offence falls in the "rarest of rare" category warranting death sentence.
Two of the four death row convicts in the December 16 gang-rape case on Monday moved an application before the Delhi high court seeking Hindi translation of certain documents including the trial court's conviction and sentence orders in the case.
The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a Gujarat high court order granting two-week furlough to rape convict Narayan Sai, son of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu.
A Delhi court handed out the sentence on three counts. The court had framed charges against the accused on January 19, 2005. The prosecution examined 21 witnesses to prove its case.
Justice Lalit said, "The element was purely based on circumstantial evidence. Law is clear that facts must point only in direction of the guilt of that man, unless and until that guilt is completely established, circumstantial evidence case theory is not to be accepted."
The five men approached the high court challenging their conviction and sentence.
Nearly 68,000 rape cases were registered across the country during 2009-11 but only 16,000 rapists were sentenced to prison, presenting a dismal picture of conviction of sexual offenders.
A special women's court in Mumbai on Tuesday convicted a 29-year-old driver for the rape and murder of Esther Anuhya, an Andhra Pradesh-based woman software engineer in suburban Kurla here last year.
Petitioners against remission in Bilkis Bano case are 'interloper', 'busybody', The Gujarat government told the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that no mediations or compromise can take place in rape cases.
The policy of a state government for grant of remission existent at the time of conviction will be applicable while deciding the petition of a convict sentenced to life imprisonment seeking premature release, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court on Friday appointed two amicus curiae on appeals of four condemned convicts in the December 16 gang-rape and murder case against the Delhi high court order upholding their death sentence.
The Kerala police has set up a special team to trace and arrest the absconding convict in the Suryanelli gang-rape case, who appeared on a Malayalam TV channel alleging that Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien was involved in the case, as claimed by the victim.
A Kolkata court has pronounced its verdict in the 2013 Kamduni gang-rape and murder case. Six accused were found guilty, with the quantum of punishment to be decided on Friday.
The rape charge could not be proved against the prime accused, his lawyer Munna Singh Pundir said.
The court said that in the instant case the investigating officer adopted a "lethargic attitude" throughout the investigation.
Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's former jailer Sunil Sangwan has won the Charkhi Dadri seat in Haryana as Bharatiya Janata Party candidate.
Banerjee had on Wednesday said an amendment to existing laws will be passed in the state assembly next week to ensure capital punishment to convicted rapists.
Two lawyers, representing death row convicts Mukesh and Pawan Kumar Gupta, on Tuesday informed the Delhi high court that they are withdrawing from the December 16 gang rape-cum-murder case on the ground of alleged interference by family members of the convicts.
The convict committed the offence on May 3, 1995 when the victim had come to his house at Nehru Nagar in South Delhi. There were three other children present in the house on that day but the priest sent the eldest one aged seven years, out.
Arguing that the December 16 gang rape and murder was "the rarest of rare" case, the police on Wednesday demanded death for the four convicts on the ground that there is no chance of their reformation as their behaviour was barbaric.
His sentence has been suspended from January 27 to February 10 in the rape case and in another for which he is serving 10 years' imprisonment for the death of the rape victim's father in custody.
