The convicts have been launched for “good behaviour”. (FILE)

New Delhi:

Eleven males convicted of raping Bilkis Bano and killing her total household within the 2002 Gujarat riots have been freed early over “good behaviour” and after the Centre’s approval, the Gujarat authorities instructed the Supreme Court docket.

However NDTV has accessed a number of FIRs and police complaints accusing the convicts of threatening and harassing witnesses whereas out on parole, which runs opposite to the justification of the Gujarat authorities that the convicts have been launched for good behaviour and that there was no proof of any wrongdoing on their half whereas they have been serving time.

Between 2017-2021, at the least 4 witnesses within the Bilkis Bano case registered complaints and FIRs towards the convicts, NDTV’s investigation reveals.

NDTV has accessed one FIR and two police complaints.

*An FIR dated July 6, 2020, was registered towards two of the convicts, Radheshyam Shah and Miteshbhai Bhatt.

The FIR was filed at Radhikpur police station in Dahod beneath sections 354 (assault or felony drive with intention to outrage modesty), 504 (intimidation), 506 (2) (risk to kill) and 114 (abetment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by Saberaben Patel, and a witness within the Bilkis Bano case, Pintubhai.

The FIR says three males, together with two convicts and Radheshyam’s brother Ashish, threatened Saberaben, her daughter Arfa and witness Pintubhai for implicating them with their statements.

* Mansuri Abdul Razzaq Abdul Majid, one other witness, filed a police grievance with Dahod police towards Sailesh Chimmanlal Bhatt on January 1, 2021. He, too, alleged threats from the convict whereas he was out on parole.

The grievance additionally alleges that Limkheda MLA Sailesh Bhai Bhabhor and former minister of state and Lok Sabha MP Jaswantsing Bhabhor felicitated Sailesh Chimmanlal Bhatt and praised him for “good deeds”. A photograph of the 2 BJP leaders sharing stage with Sailesh Bhatt was additionally connected within the grievance.

This grievance by no means was an FIR.

*Two different witnesses, Ghanchi Adambhai Ismailbhai and Ghanchi Imtiazbhai Yusufbhai, filed a grievance towards one of many convicts, Govind Nai, on July 28, 2017. The candidates alleged that the accused threatened to kill them in the event that they did not comply with “compromise”. This grievance additionally by no means was an FIR.

Yesterday, Union Minister Prahlad Joshi defended the convicts’ launch, citing their “good behaviour”.

“When the federal government and the involved folks have taken the choice, I do not discover something fallacious in it as it’s a means of regulation,” Prahlad Joshi, the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, instructed NDTV.

Reacting to the outrage over the “regulation” for untimely launch utilized to convicts sentenced for what the CBI known as a “heinous, grave and severe” crime, the Minister echoed Gujarat’s “good behaviour” argument.

“After having been in jail for a while, if their behaviour…there are such a lot of incidents, I do not need to get into that,” Mr Joshi stated.