NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Gujarat government to pay a compensation of Rs 50 lakh, a job and accommodation to 2002 Gujarat gang-rape victim, Bilkis Bano.
Bano had also sought exemplary compensation from the State government, refusing to accept its offer of Rs 5 lakh.
A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and also comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Deepak Gupta, passed the interim direction and asked the Gujarat government to pay the compensation to Bano.
The top court also directed the state government to provide Bilkis Bano a government job and accommodation as per rules.
In March 3, 2002, a five months pregnant Bilkis Bano was gang-raped when rioters attacked her in Vadodara. She left to die alongside 14 members of her family, including her 3-year-old daughter in Randhikpur village, during the Gujarat riots in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning in Gujarat.
On 21 January, 2008, a special court had convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 11 men for raping Bano and murdering seven of her family members, while acquitting seven persons including the policemen and doctors.
With agencies inputs