- Sunday, March 09, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Swati Maliwal, who leads Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), has written to prime minister Narendra Modi urging for stronger laws and policies to curb remission and paroles of rape convicts.
The 38-year-old cited the cases of the rape convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case and that of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is convicted of raping two women disciples at his ashram in Sirsa in the northern Indianstate of Haryana, saying they must be sent back to jail.
In her letter, Maliwal wrote,”These incidents are deeply disturbing and reflect the connivance of highly placed politicians with influential convicts. The politicians continue to use rapists to further their vote bank politics, especially when elections are round the corner, which happen to be the case in both Gujarat and Haryana.”
She added that if influential people enjoying political clout seek benefits while serving life terms for heinous crimes against women and children, “justice is clearly denied and any steps of the government for ensuring safety of women and children are rendered devoid of any merit”.
बिल्किस बानो के रेपिस्ट की रिहाई और राम रहीम की पैरोल ने देश की हर निर्भया का हौसला तोड़ा है। मैंने प्रधानमंत्री जी को पत्र लिख Remission & Parole नियमों में बदलाव करने का आग्रह किया है।
साथ ही बिल्किस बानो के रेपिस्ट और राम रहीम को वापिस जेल पहुंचाने की मांग की है। pic.twitter.com/oElFQbyxhW
— Swati Maliwal (@SwatiJaiHind) October 29, 2022
Maliwal said, “Clearly, the existing rules and policies vis a vis remission, parole and even furlough in the country are extremely weak and can be easily manipulated by politicians and convicts for their own benefit. Therefore, to avoid any further misuse of the laws and policies, there is an urgent need to review them and make them more stringent so that justice is served.”
She added, “In view of the above, your Hon’ble self is kindly requested to give instructions for the following:
a. Take up the matter of the premature release of Bilkis Bano’s rapists with the Gujarat Government and Ministry of Home affairs, GOI so that the rapists are made to serve their complete jail term.
b. Take up the matter of the parole of Gurmeet Ram Rahim with the Haryana Government so that his parole is cancelled immediately.
c. Ensure strict action against senior functionaries of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh Government who have attended the Sabhas of rapist and murderer Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
d. Set up a High Level Committee to ensure stringent laws and policies regarding remission, parole and furlough for convicts serving sentences in serious crimes against women and children. The sentence of convicts in cases of crimes against women and children should not be reduced under any circumstances!”
Bano, who was five-month pregnant then, was gangraped by 11 men during the 2002 riots in the western state of Gujarat. Her three-year-old daughter was killed along with 14 members of her family.
On August 15, the convicted rapists who were serving life sentences, were released from Gujarat’s Godhra jail and it was said that they were set free because of their “good conduct” after serving the jail term for more than 14 years.
The decision was condemned in various quarters.
Singh, on the other hand, was serving a 20-year jail term in a prison in Rohtak, Haryana, and he was out on parole recently for a period of 40 days. In 2019, Singh and three others were convicted in a journalist’s murder in 2002.
