00:00 Namaskar!
00:01 Welcome to another episode of Editorial.
00:04 You see, it is one thing
00:10 when an opposition tells a government that your decisions are selective.
00:14 Your decisions are not fair, they are selective.
00:17 It is one thing when an opposition says that.
00:19 It is one thing when journalists like us say it,
00:24 that the government's decisions are selective.
00:29 But it is a completely different thing
00:31 when the Supreme Court of this country
00:33 tells the government that why are your decisions selective.
00:37 I am going to talk to you about Bilquis Manu's case
00:41 and I am going to talk to you about the Supreme Court's questions
00:44 that they ask the Gujarat government.
00:47 Let's get right into the show.
00:48 The Supreme Court, today,
00:55 asked a volley of questions to the Gujarat government.
00:59 Questions that a lot of us have been asking for the last one year.
01:03 The Supreme Court asked the Gujarat government
01:08 that, you see, out of all the people you have,
01:12 all the people that were in jail,
01:14 how come you selected the 11 people
01:21 who raped a woman called Bilquis Manu,
01:24 who raped this woman and killed her family members
01:27 in front of her while raping her?
01:29 How could you do that?
01:32 How did you select these 11 people?
01:35 In fact, the judge said that the Gujarat government
01:41 is on thin ice as far as grant of premature remission release is concerned.
01:48 The judge went on to say that the convict's death penalty
01:52 was committed to life imprisonment.
01:54 How could they be released after serving 14 years in such situation?
01:59 Why other prisoners are not given the relief of release?
02:05 Why were the culprits selectively given the benefit of the policies in this case?
02:11 This was asked by Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan.
02:17 What I told you?
02:18 There were so many people.
02:21 How could you identify just the 11 people and give them?
02:24 A person who has raped a woman and murdered her family in front of her,
02:30 how could you do that?
02:31 I am constantly saying it is because I want you to imagine
02:36 the act that these 11 people have done.
02:40 Convicted, it is not accused.
02:43 Convicted.
02:46 What does it mean by a state government selecting these 11 people
02:49 and giving them remission and saying that go home, enough.
02:52 What does that mean?
02:54 What message is the state government sending?
02:58 The court further asked,
03:00 how far this rule, that is, giving a chance to harden criminals to reform
03:06 by releasing them after 14 years is being applied on other prisoners.
03:12 Why is this policy being applied selectively?
03:16 Opportunity to reform and reintegrate should be given to all.
03:22 How far is this being implemented?
03:25 Why are our prisons overflowing?
03:28 Give us the data.
03:29 In a very simple term, the court is asking what we are thinking too.
03:33 Why?
03:35 A person who raped a woman, killed her family in front of her,
03:40 and I am going to say this again and again,
03:42 raped her and killed her family in front of her,
03:45 you are allowing them to go.
03:47 You set them free.
03:48 15th August, 2022, after 14 years,
03:53 where they were supposed to serve life.
03:57 How many other prisoners have you done this to?
04:01 Why?
04:03 Reintegrating and all is only, these 11 people deserve it.
04:06 Others don't.
04:07 People who have committed small crimes,
04:09 people who have committed robbery, people who have committed murders,
04:13 they don't deserve this.
04:14 The rapist of a woman who killed her family in front of her deserves it.
04:19 This is what the court asked.
04:22 This is what the court asked.
04:24 What the court is actually asking for is,
04:28 why are you doing this?
04:30 What is the reason?
04:31 Like I told you before, what message are you trying to send
04:34 to the community and to the society?
04:37 The court also questioned on what basis
04:40 the Jail Advisory Committee was formed for Bilkis convicts,
04:44 ordering the state to provide details.
04:47 It also asked why the opinion of Godhra court was sought
04:51 since the trial was not conducted there.
04:54 A very important point.
04:57 A very important point.
04:58 You see, the trial was not conducted in Gujarat.
05:03 The trial was conducted in Maharashtra.
05:07 The judge who convicted these people was sitting in Maharashtra.
05:11 The court that heard this case is in Maharashtra
05:15 and you are releasing those people in Gujarat?
05:18 What is this?
05:19 Gujarat court was not even allowed to hear this case.
05:25 You don't know what this case is.
05:27 You don't know what the evidences are.
05:29 You don't know what the judge was thinking.
05:31 You don't know what the prosecution said.
05:32 You don't know what the defense said.
05:34 You don't know anything.
05:36 On what basis did you give them remission?
05:38 The court said, I want to see the data.
05:40 I want to see your logic as to why these people were selected.
05:43 In fact, Bilkis Banu's lawyer Shobha Gupta
05:47 told the court that the Maharashtra state
05:49 was not heard in this matter at all.
05:52 The center has not even been made a party to this.
05:56 The Supreme Court's order was only in relation to the application of convict Radhesham
06:02 while Gujarat's government gave exemption to all 11 convicts.
06:05 The story is like this.
06:07 Bilkis Banu's advocate says that,
06:10 listen, you know what, Maharashtra court was not even consulted.
06:13 The center was not consulted before releasing these people.
06:18 Well, while I understand she is putting a point across,
06:23 but the point is, are you telling me that the center didn't know
06:27 that these 11 rapist murderers were being released?
06:32 Kashmir to Kanyakumari, a common man knows that these 11 people were released.
06:37 But center doesn't know, baba.
06:40 Center has no idea about this.
06:42 Center was never told.
06:43 What logic is this?
06:45 And are we supposed to believe that if the center wanted,
06:49 they couldn't stop it?
06:50 If the center wanted, they couldn't put these people back in the prison where they belong?
06:57 People who raped a woman and killed her family in front of her.
07:02 These people couldn't have been put behind bars?
07:05 This is sending a very, very wrong message to people in general
07:14 and to one particular community in particular.
07:17 It is sending a very wrong message.
07:20 Because she was Bilkis Banu,
07:24 is that the reason why her rapists are roaming scot-free?
07:28 That question is bound to arise.
07:30 That question is bound to arise.
07:33 Now, let me tell you the larger story.
07:36 Let me tell you the larger story of this.
07:38 The larger story is, let's go to Madhya Pradesh.
07:43 A 35-year-old man in Madhya Pradesh,
07:48 a rape convict from Satna district in Madhya Pradesh
07:53 was released in 2021 following a sentence of remission.
07:58 Same remission.
07:59 This rapist was allowed to go and you know what this rapist went and did?
08:03 The rapist was caught again because this time around,
08:06 this rapist went and raped a minor.
08:09 He was convicted again.
08:14 See, somewhere down the line,
08:18 it's not just that the rapes are happening in our country.
08:23 It is also the fact that we are seen as a country, as a government,
08:28 who is not really bothered about rapes,
08:31 who is not really bothered about protecting our women.
08:33 Were we bothered about when those wrestlers sat outside in Jantar Mantar?
08:37 Were we bothered about that?
08:40 Were we bothered about when we sent that Ram Rahim,
08:43 that fellow, that another rapist, convicted rapist,
08:47 when that fellow is roaming around and enjoying his birthday party?
08:51 He gets furlonged like, you know, some kind of a vacation.
08:56 So, if he is bored in the jail, then he goes,
09:00 in fact, rather it is reversed.
09:01 When he gets bored at home, then he goes to jail.
09:03 And whenever he wants, at a drop of a hat, gets furlonged.
09:09 So, literally, you are rewarding people who have raped,
09:14 who are accused of sexual harassment in the case of that Bridge Bush and Sharon Singh.
09:20 Look at the way he is roaming around.
09:22 Look at the way. Nothing. No arrest. Nothing.
09:26 No arrest. Nothing.
09:29 Every time a rapist roams free in this country,
09:33 believe me you, like I tell always, you are creating hundred other rapists.
09:39 Because you are giving confidence to hundred other rapists saying that nothing happens.
09:43 Nothing happens in India.
09:45 Eleven men raped a woman,
09:49 killed her child, killed a member of her family while she was being raped.
09:55 And those men were released.
09:58 What law are we talking about?
10:01 What is your GDP?
10:03 What is your superpower?
10:05 What is all this worth?
10:06 If you can't protect our own girl children,
10:09 what is all of this worth?
10:10 Please ask yourself.
10:12 And if you find an answer, please write it down and let me also know.
10:15 Because I don't see an answer to this.
10:17 And believe me you, yes, I am a little upset today.
10:20 And I have all the right to be.
10:23 I have all the right to be because I believe a society that can't protect their own girl children
10:30 is a society that doesn't deserve to be called as a civil society.
10:36 I think, I hundred percent believe in this.
10:39 And the way we are going,
10:41 and the way we are going,
10:43 we are reaching there.
10:45 That's the point I wanted to make today.
10:47 Thank you so much for listening to me.
10:49 Till I see you next time, Namaskar.
10:51 [music]
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