Allow me to commence by quoting verbatim from the Supreme Court's verdict delivered on January 8, 2024, in the Bilkis Bano remission case: "The grotesque and diabolical crime in question was driven by communal hatred and resulted in twelve convicts, amongst many others, brutally gang-raping the petitioner, namely, Bilkis Yakub Rasool, who was pregnant at that time.

"Further, the petitioner's mother was gang-raped and murdered; her cousin, who had just delivered a baby, was also gang-raped and murdered. Eight minors, including the petitioner's cousin's two-day-old infant, were also murdered.

"The petitioner's three-year-old daughter was murdered by smashing her head on a rock, her two minor brothers, two minor sisters, her phupha, phuphi, mama (uncle, aunt, and uncle respectively) and three cousins were also murdered." This tragedy unfolded in Gujarat in March 2002, during the chief ministership of Narendra Modi.

What crime did she and her family commit to invite such treatment? The same crime that tens of millions of Indians committed—they were born Muslims, just as I was born a Christian, and many of my readers were born as Hindus.

In every crime, the hand of God works in the sense that He leaves evidence leading investigators to the culprits. In this particular case, the rapists assumed that Bilkis Bano had died, and there was no one to point the accusing finger at them.

Unfortunately for them, Bilkis Bano had lost only her consciousness, not her life. She emerged from the worst-ever trauma any person could face to fight her battle against some of the most powerful individuals in the country.

History tells us that, more often than not, it is the meek and the humble who take on the mighty and the gigantic, as in the evergreen story of David and Goliath. In this process, Bilkis Bano has emerged as the greatest fighter independent India has ever seen.

I would be happy to be contradicted on this if anyone can suggest a name that rivals her in both the sufferings she underwent and the kind of victory she achieved. The verdict came immediately after Modi addressed a large gathering of women at Thrisur in Kerala, where he talked about Nari Shakti (women's power).

When the incident happened, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against unknown accused on March 4, 2002. "The Investigation Agency filed a closure report stating that the accused could not be traced, and the said closure report was accepted by the Judicial Magistrate vide Order dated March 25, 2003."

The closure report shocked the conscience of the nation. How could the perpetrators of such a heinous crime go scot-free? How could they enjoy all the creature comforts while Bilkis Bano nursed her wounds, both physical and metaphysical?

One should remember that the Gujarat government, which could not identify the perpetrators or bring them to book, was led by a person whose chest was touted as 56 inches wide. He would not have heard about the 18th-century play "The Mourning Bride" by William Congreve, which gave rise to the saying, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Unfortunately for him, there was such a lady in Gujarat!

Bilkis Bano did not consider the Modi government's word to be the last on the subject. She went to the Supreme Court and filed a writ petition against the miscarriage of justice in her case. The court heard her petition and ordered the case trial in Maharashtra. And for good measure, it also asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the case.

It was a body blow for the Gujarat government. Ordinarily, it should have resigned. During the Emergency, an engineering student in Kerala, Rajan, was found missing. He was suspected to be a Naxalite and was sentenced to death by the police.

Like Bilkis Bano, his father, T. V. Eachara Warrier, sought justice for his son. In 1978, when the Kerala High Court made some strictures against the Kerala Government, Chief Minister K. Karunakaran did not think twice before resigning from his post. Nothing of the sort happened in Gujarat, where the man went on to reach dizzying heights in Indian politics.

It was a challenging job for the CBI. Yet, they were able to arrest the persons involved in the macabre incident. In the trial that followed in Maharashtra, some of the accused, including several policemen, were let off for want of adequate evidence. Finally, 11 were convicted and given life sentences.

The convicts were either influential people or had the support of powerful people. They went right up to the apex court to have the punishment revoked so that they could enjoy their life with their wives, children, and grandchildren. But the court refused leniency, and they remained behind bars.

As they stayed in jail, their friends in power were working in tandem to secure remission from the jail term. It is not that they were all in prison all these years; they were getting furloughs and paroles to stay with their families occasionally. No, this is not my comment; this is mentioned in the latest Supreme Court judgment.

Petitions for remission began to be filed. It was found, to their utter dismay, that since they were tried in Maharashtra, they could be given remission only by Maharashtra, not Gujarat. The court in Maharashtra was convinced that if the 11 rapists and murderers were released from jail, it would be a terrible miscarriage of justice.

So, they changed their strategy. They found ways to influence the Gujarat government on the plea that their conduct in the jail was praiseworthy. How could it be otherwise when they were allowed to flit in and out of the jail? They were treated like sons-in-law during the first few months of the marriage.

Every year, on occasions like Independence Day, the governments use their power of pardon to release some prisoners if they fulfil specific criteria like good conduct, the nature of the case, and the sense of guilt they have. On none of these grounds could they have been given remission.

However, even the Union Home Ministry favoured the accused in this case. Finally, an accused with the surname Shah managed to convince the Supreme Court in 2022 that the appeal for remission could be heard by Gujarat. For that, he produced documents which were forged in nature.

In other words, what Shah did was a punishable offence. Yet, the tragedy is that the Supreme Court was bluffed into accepting his argument that remission appeals could be heard by Gujarat.

That is what the Gujarat government had been waiting for. It wanted to release all the 11 guilty people from jail. Once the verdict came, the Central and state governments acted in tandem and were released.

It was a great shock for all law-abiding people in the country. When they came out of jail, they were garlanded as if they were Bhagat Singhs who had gone to jail to obtain freedom for the country. It did not occur to them that the 11 were guilty of gang-raping a pregnant woman and killing her three-year-old child by hitting her against a rock.

There was a BJP MLA who played a crucial role in their release. It was he who certified that they were Sanskari (cultured) people. It was even pointed out that they belonged to upper castes. As they were feted, all those who believe in justice and fair play lamented that falsehood finally won. They asked, what happened to the national motto, Satyameva Jayate (Truth shall triumph), derived from the Mundaka Upanishad?

For people like me, it symbolised the New India that Narendra Modi has been promising. Many thought the release of the 11 was the end of the matter. Bilkis Bano was not one among them.

She went to appeal to the Supreme Court challenging the remission. She was not alone. Others, like former MP Mahua Moitra, also filed a writ petition. Among the petitioners, the most courageous was a former vice-chancellor who stood to guarantee that Siddique Kappan would come out of jail. No, she was not a Muslim.

The two-member Bench consisting of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan has, in its 254-page verdict, declared that the 11 did not deserve to be at large. Their place was in jail. All of them have been asked to report back to jail. The court also ruled that any appeal for remission should be heard by the Maharashtra government.

What's worse is that the court pointed out how the fraudulent petitioner, Shah, acted in collusion with the Gujarat government. What surprised me is that the court did not think it necessary to initiate summary disciplinary action against Shah for misguiding the court. In that case, the government should also have been punished. That is, perhaps, why he escaped.

If the Gujarat Chief Minister had self-respect, he should have resigned, owning moral responsibility for what happened. How could he be bothered when he was busy organising a mega show to attract investments in Gujarat, where the chief guest was Modi and a Sheikh from the Gulf?

While considering matters of remission, the court should consider whether the prisoners seeking remission were apologetic or had a sense of remorse. In the case of the 11, they never regretted what they did. They never asked Bilkis Bano to pardon them. So, they did not fulfil one of the main criteria for remission.

Small wonder that the SC verdict begins by quoting this lacuna in the remission granted to the 11. Let me quote the judgment, "Plato, the Greek Philosopher, in his treatise, The Laws, underscores that punishment is to be inflicted, not for the sake of vengeance, for what is done cannot be undone, but for the sake of prevention and reformation.

"In his treatise, Plato reasons that the lawgiver, as far as he can, ought to imitate the doctor who does not apply his drug with a view to pain only but to do the patient good. This curative theory of punishment likens penalty to medicine, administered for the good of the one who is being chastised.

"Thus, if a criminal is curable, he ought to be improved by education and other suitable arts and then set free again as a better citizen and less of a burden to the state. This postulate lies at the heart of the policy of remission.

"In addition, there are also competing interests involved– the rights of the victim and the victim's family to justice vis-a-vis a convict's claim to a second chance by way of remission or reduction of his sentence for reformation".

Alas, on all these grounds, they do not deserve any remission as they and those who back them believe that it was their duty to rape, gang-rape, and kill with impunity. They also believe that the only mistake they made was not to ensure that Bilkis Bano had not become just another body in the countless number of bodies cremated or buried during the Gujarat riots.

Now, the battle goes to Maharashtra, which will have to decide the appeal for remission afresh. Since Bilkis Bano is the only person alive who can pardon them, they should be asked to seek mercy from her. Only after she gives mercy to them should their appeal for remission be considered. Justice should not only be done but also appear to have been done. My humble salute to Bilkis Bano!