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Big Blow To Gujarat Govt: SC Quashes Remission Of 11 Convicts In Bilkis Bano Case; Rapists To Return To Jail

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In what seems to be a big blow to the Gujarat government, Supreme Court quashed the govt’s decision of remission for 11 convicts that was granted by the Gujarat government and released. The verdict will imply that all 11 individuals convicted of gang-raping Bilkis Bano and murdering 14 of her family members during the 2002 communal riots, will have to return to jail.

Supreme Court held that the judgment of May 13, 2022 (which directed the Gujarat government to consider remission of convict) was obtained by “playing fraud” on the court and by suppressing material facts. The convicts had not approached the court with clean hands, said the Supreme Court.

‘Gujarat was not competent to pass the remission orders’

Supreme Court held that the State, where an offender is tried and sentenced, is competent to decide the remission plea of convicts. Supreme Court holds that the State of Gujarat was not competent to pass the remission orders of the convicts but the Maharashtra government was.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the horror of the communal riots that broke out after the Godhra train-burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed in the riots.

Here’s a sequence of events in Bilkis Bano case

2002: During the post-Godhra riots, Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter. She was five months pregnant when rioters attacked her family in Vadodara. The trial of the case was shifted from Gujarat to Mumbai and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigated the case.

2008: A special court in Mumbai sentenced the 11 accused to life imprisonment.

2017: This decision was upheld by a division bench of the Bombay high court in 2017.

2022: All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released. Supreme Court had asked whether convicts have a fundamental right to seek remission.

2023: While reserving the judgment, the top court had directed the Centre and the Gujarat government to submit by October 2023 the original records related to the remission of sentence of the 11 convicts.

Crime

Mumbai Accident: 3 Injured As Speeding Mercedes Driven By 17-Year-Old Boy Crashes Inside Coastal Road Tunnel

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Mumbai: Three members of a family were injured after a speeding Mercedes, allegedly being driven by a 17-year-old boy, rammed into a car inside the Coastal Road tunnel in South Mumbai, police said.

The accident occurred in the early hours of Sunday.

The D B Marg police have registered a case against a businessman from the Agripada area, the Mercedes owner, his 18-year-old granddaughter and the latter’s 17-year-old male friend, who was driving the luxury car, an official said on Monday.

The accident took place inside the tunnel on the road when the speeding Mercedes, going towards South Mumbai, rammed into another vehicle from behind. The high-end four-wheeler then hit another car going ahead, he said.

Three members of a family, including a senior citizen woman, suffered injuries when the Mercedes hit the second car, the official said.

During the probe, it came to light that the Mercedes was being driven by a 17-year-old boy. He lost control of the vehicle inside the tunnel, leading to the accident, the official stated.

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Crime

Maharashtra Shocker: Man Arrested For Killing 6-Year-Old Daughter To Meet Two-Child Norm For Panchayat Polls

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Hyderabad: A man from Maharashtra killed one of his three children to overcome the two-child norm to contest the upcoming Panchayat elections in that state.

Pandurang Kondmangale, a resident of Kerur village in Mukhed taluka of Maharashtra’s Nanded district, pushed her six-year-old daughter into a canal in Telangana’s Nizamabad district.

Nizamabad Police on Monday announced the arrest of Pandurang (28) and village sarpanch Ganesh Ramachandra Shinde.

Nizamabad Police Commissioner P. Sai Chaitanya told media persons that the body of a girl was found in the Nizam Sagar canal in Yedapally a few days ago. The investigation led to her identification as Prachi (6), a resident of Kerur village in neighbouring Nanded district of Maharashtra.

Police picked up her father for questioning. He tried to mislead the police by stating that she was undergoing treatment at a health centre. When grilled by the investigating officer, he confessed to killing the child.

What he revealed during the questioning was shocking for everyone. Pandurang, who runs a barber shop in his village, was keen to contest the upcoming Panchayat elections. As he had a three-year-old boy and twin girls aged six, he was ineligible to contest in view of the two-child norm for candidates contesting local body polls in Maharashtra.

He consulted his friend and current sarpanch of the village, Ganesh Shinde how to overcome the norm. They conspired to get rid of one of his children, Prachi, the elder of the twins.

According to police, they initially considered putting Prachi up for adoption. But that would not have served the purpose because she would still be registered as his child in the birth certificate.

Pandurang also thought of abandoning the child, but was worried about the consequences in the event of her return. They then conspired to kill the child and make it seem like an accident.

As Nizamabad district is only a few kilometres away from his village, Pandurang took Prachi on a motorcycle to the Nizam Sagar canal. He pushed her into the canal and fled. Some villagers who were working in the field nearby heard something plunge into the water and rushed there to find the girl’s lifeless body floating in the canal. They alerted the police, which launched an investigation.

The girl’s pictures were circulated widely on social media. Someone from the Maharashtra village identified Prachi when they saw her photo as the display picture on the WhatsApp number of one of the police personnel.

A police team reached the village and began an investigation, which led to the arrest of Pandurang and the sarpanch.

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Crime

Mumbai Police Rebuts Social Media Claims About Missing Children; Warns Action Against Rumours

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A day after reports claimed that 12 minor children went missing within 36 hours across Mumbai, the Mumbai Police on Monday issued a statement rejecting the claims and warning social media users against spreading rumours related to missing or abducted children.

In a post on X, the Mumbai Police said, “Some social media accounts are spreading false information and rumours regarding missing and abducted children. We completely deny these claims.”

The police added that the process has been initiated to register FIRs and take strict legal action against individuals deliberately circulating false information to create fear among the public.

The clarification came a day after Media reported that 12 minor children, including eight girls, had gone missing within a 36-hour span. The unusually high number had triggered concerns about the possible presence of organised child trafficking networks in the city.

While some cases were linked to family disputes or children running away from home, a human trafficking angle was suspected in others.

According to Mumbai Police records, 145 children went missing between June and December 2025, including 93 girls. Between November 1 and December 6 alone, 82 missing cases were registered, with adolescents accounting for more than half. These included 41 girls and 13 boys under 18. Police said several children were later traced and reunited with their families.

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