SC lauded for verdict in Bilkis Bano case

Hyderabad: Popular Front of India (PFI) has hailed the ruling by the Supreme Court that directed the Gujarat government to pay a compensation of Rs 50 lakh and to grant a government job to Bilkis Bano.

PFI Chairman E Abubacker said that the court's order is a slap on the faces of the BJP top brass who were in power in Gujarat during the dreadful days of communal riots in 2002.

Bilkis was 21 and pregnant when she was gang-raped. Her family members, including her three-year-old child was mob lynched. The SC also directed the government to provide her accommodation at a place of her choice, after noting that she had been living a nomadic life, since 2002. The court has rejected the claim by Gujarat government that it has taken appropriate measures, including action on guilty police officers and the offer of Rs 5 lakh to the victim.

The BJP leaders, including Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, who were at the helm of state affairs in Gujarat at that time must get ashamed and make a public apology at least now in the light of the strong signal from the Supreme Court against the blatant misuse of power and discrimination, Abubacker said, and hoped that the latest exposure of the true face of RSS-BJP politics would serve as a reminder to the people in the context of the on-going elections to Indian Parliament.