Bilkis Bano case: Supreme Court orders Rs 50 lakh compensation to gangrape survivor

New DelhI, Apr 23: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Gujarat government to pay a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to Bilkis Bano, who was gangraped during the 2002 riots, and to provide her a government job and accommodation.

Eleven men had raped Bilkis Bano during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Bano was 19 years old and pregnant at the time. Fourteen members of her family, including her three-year-old child, were murdered by the rioters near Ahmedabad.

Last week, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Gujarat government to take disciplinary action in two weeks against the erring police officials, including an IPS officer, convicted by the Bombay High Court in the sensational Bilkis Bano gang rape case during the 2002 riots in the state.

The Bombay High Court had also convicted five police personnel for not performing their duties and for tampering of evidence during the investigation into Bano's gangrape.

The trial court, while sentencing 11 people to life imprisonment on January 21, 2008, had acquitted five police officers and two government doctors, giving them the benefit of doubt.