Bilkis Bano case: Gujarat HC grants 7-day parole to convict Radheshyam Shah
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The Gujarat High Court on Thursday granted seven days’ parole to Radheshyam Shah, one of the 11 men convicted in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang rape case, citing the “economic condition of the family”.
Justice Sanjeev J Thaker said the court had considered the grounds cited in Shah’s petition as well as the remarks submitted by the prison authorities before granting him the relief.
“Having heard and considering the averments made in the petition, more particularly, the ground mentioned therein as well as the jail remarks, this court is inclined to exercise discretion in favour of the present petitioner,” the order said.
During the proceedings, Shah’s counsel, K D Parmar, told the court that the convict was seeking parole because of the “economic condition of the family” and to “help with finances”. Shah was last granted parole in December 2025.
The court ordered that Shah be released for seven days from the date of his actual release on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 10,000. He has been directed to surrender before the jail authorities immediately after the parole period ends and mark his presence at the nearest police station on the third and fifth days of his release.
Shah is serving a life sentence for the gang rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven members of her family during the 2002 Gujarat communal violence. He was among the 11 convicts who were granted remission by the Gujarat government in August 2022. The Supreme Court later quashed the remission orders and directed all 11 convicts to return to prison in January 2024.
On August 15, 2022, the Gujarat government granted remission to all 11 convicts, allowing them to walk out of the Godhra sub-jail. Bano subsequently challenged the decision before the Supreme Court.
On January 8, 2024, the Supreme Court quashed the remission orders, holding that the Gujarat government did not have jurisdiction to grant the relief. The court held that Maharashtra, where the convicts had been tried and sentenced, was the appropriate government to consider their remission applications. It also held that Gujarat had effectively usurped the powers of the Maharashtra government and directed the 11 convicts to surrender. They returned to the Godhra jail within the stipulated period.
Shah had a distinct role in the legal proceedings concerning the remission. He was the only one among the 11 convicts to approach the Supreme Court over which government had jurisdiction to decide an application for premature release and which remission policy would apply to him. In May 2022, the Supreme Court had directed Gujarat to consider his application under its July 9, 1992 remission policy. The Gujarat government subsequently granted remission to all 11 convicts in August that year.
Following their release in 2022, the convicts were welcomed outside the prison by relatives and members of right-wing Hindu groups, who offered them sweets and touched their feet in a traditional gesture of respect. The reception triggered widespread public outrage.
Bano’s more than two-decade legal battle became emblematic, for many Indians, of the struggle by survivors of the 2002 violence to secure justice and accountability.
Bano was five months pregnant in March 2002 when she fled Randhikpur village in eastern Gujarat with relatives and other Muslims as violence spread across the state.
After Bano and her family reached another district, a mob attacked their group. Bano was gang-raped during the assault, while seven members of her family were killed, including her three-year-old daughter, whose head was smashed against the ground by the perpetrators in Gujarat’s Dahod district.
Nearly 2,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed during the 2002 Gujarat violence. Narendra Modi, who was Gujarat’s chief minister at the time and is now India’s Prime Minister, has faced allegations from rights groups and critics that his government facilitated the violence. Modi and his government have denied allegations of wrongdoing.
In December 2003, the Supreme Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the Bilkis Bano gang rape case. The accused were arrested in 2004, and the Supreme Court later transferred the trial from Gujarat to Maharashtra after Bano said she had received death threats from the accused.
In 2008, a Mumbai special court convicted 11 men of gang rape and murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment.
After a 17-year legal battle, Bano appeared to have secured a major legal victory in 2019 when the Supreme Court directed the Gujarat government to provide her Rs 50 lakh in compensation, a government job and accommodation of her choice.