‘The court understood what I went through’: Bilkis Bano after Supreme Court orders Rs 50 lakh compensation 

Bilkis Bano

New Delhi: A day after Supreme Court directed the Gujarat government to give Rs 50 lakh compensation, a government job and accommodation to Bilkis Bano, who was gangraped during the 2002 riots, she said her faith in the justice system has been restored.

During a press conference, on Wednesday, she said, “[The court] understood my pain, what I went through.” Bano had earlier refused to accept compensation of Rs 5 lakh offered by the Gujarat government.

The Bombay High Court had upheld the conviction and life imprisonment of 12 people in the gangrape case, on May 4, 2017.

 Bano said she plans to use a part of the compensation money to raise fund to help victims of rape and communal violence and that she will name the fund after Saleha, her three-year-old daughter who was killed in the riots. She added, “We never got back Saleha’s body, we couldn’t even bury her and perform her final rites, and for that I am filled with sorrow till this day. Perhaps this judgment will help bring some kind of peace.”

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