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Government releases 11 men sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes committed by Muslim women who were gang-raped while pregnant during India’s devastating 2002 religious riots appealed to reverse the decision to
The victim, now in her 40s, was pregnant but was brutally gang-raped in 2002 in the western state of Gujarat in mob violence, killing more than 1,000 people in the worst religious riots India has experienced. Seven members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter, have also died in the violence since independence from Britain in 1947.
The Associated Press typically does not identify victims of sexual assault.
24 Convicted in 2002 West India Religious Riot Trial
The 11 men, who were released from prison on Monday when India marked its 75th anniversary of independence, were convicted of rape, murder and unlawful assembly in 2008.
The victim said the decision by the Gujarat government had numbed her and shook her faith in justice.
“I trusted the Supreme Court of this country that women’s justice ended like this.” “Undo this harm. Give me back my right to live in peace without fear.”
Dozens of women protested against the man’s release in the capital New Delhi on Thursday. Maimoonah Moller of the All India Democratic Women’s Association said she is calling on the state to rescind the decision.
“(Victims) and other survivors should be allowed to live in peace and dignity,” Muller said.
Raj Kumar, deputy chief secretary of the state of Gujarat, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party is in power, told the Indian Express newspaper that the prisoner’s petition for remission was filed after serving more than 14 years in prison. A state government commission made the decision after considering other factors such as age and behavior in prison.
Kumar said the man was eligible under the 1992 remission policy in effect at the time of his conviction. A new version he adopted in 2014 by the federal government prohibits the release of remission for those convicted of certain crimes, such as rape and murder.
The riots have long haunted Modi, then Gujarat’s top elected official, amid allegations that authorities authorized and even encouraged the bloodshed. Modi has repeatedly denied playing any role, and the Supreme Court said it found no evidence to indict him.
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After being released from prison, a social media video showing a man being welcomed with sweets and wreaths went viral, sparking outrage and outrage from women, rights activists and opposition politicians.
Attorney Vrinda Grover told India Today TV that the decision was a “farce and a grave misjudgment”.
Opposition lawmaker Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to take aim at Modi, questioning what message India’s women received from a government that said it wanted to empower women.
“The whole country sees the difference between your words and actions,” he wrote in Hindi.