Hyderabad (Telangana) : Welcoming the Supreme Court verdict in the Bilkis Bano case, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday said that Bilkis Bano fought her battle on her own to get justice.

The Supreme Court on Monday struck down the Gujarat government's order granting remission to 11 convicts who had gang-raped Bilkis Bano and murdered her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots.

Owaisi targeted the BJP and said that it shamefully garlanded the convicts in the case and the BJP-led Gujarat government provided the necessary help to them.

"Bilkis Bano fought her battle on her own for justice. We have to remember that it was the BJP who helped in their release and garlanded them. The Supreme Court today said that the state of Gujarat acted in complicity with the convicts. The BJP government was helping rapists in Gujarat. Two BJP MLAs endorsed the release of these rapists," AIMIM chief said.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan quashed the Gujarat government's remission order, by which convicts were released prematurely. It asked all 11 convicts to surrender before jail authorities within two weeks.

The bench held that the Gujarat government was not competent to pass the remission orders but the Maharashtra government. It said the appropriate government to decide the remission was the state within whose territorial limits the accused are sentenced, not where the crime is committed or the accused are imprisoned.

The top court held that the judgement of May 13, 2022, by which another bench of the apex court had directed the Gujarat government to consider remission of convicts as per the 1992 policy, was obtained by "playing fraud" on the court and by suppressing material facts.

The Gujarat government usurped the powers of the Maharashtra government acting in furtherance of the judgement dated May 13, 2022, which, in our opinion, is a "nullity," said the bench.