On Thursday morning Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Saket Gokhale who is also under scanner for his involvement in an alleged crowdfunding scam made a bizarre comparison between the horrific Shraddha Walkar murder case that sent shockwaves across the country with the 2002 Bilkis Bano case.
“Think of the brutality that monster Aftab Poonawalla committed. Now, remember: the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case committed the SAME brutality when they raped her & killed her family (including a 2-year-old baby). These monsters were released by Modi govt. on “leniency”. WHY?” Gokhale tweeted.
Think of the brutality that monster Aftab Poonawalla committed.
— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) November 17, 2022
Now remember:
the convicts in Bilkis Bano case committed the SAME brutality when they raped her & killed her family (including a 2-year-old baby).
These monsters were released by Modi govt. on “leniency”.
WHY?
Notably, Aftab Amin Poonawala killed his live-in partner Shraddha Walkar on May 18, chopped her body into 35 pieces, and disposed of them in 18 different locations. Aftab told police that he and Shraddha got into an argument, and he strangulated her. Later, he chopped her dead body into 35 pieces. He brought a new fridge to store the pieces. Aftab left his apartment with one piece of the dead body wrapped in plastic daily and disposed of it off in a forest area. Reportedly, the accused stayed in the same room where he had murdered Shraddha and used to look at her that he had chopped off and kept in the refrigerator.
In the Bilkis Bano gangrape case, Bilkis Bano who was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was one of the seven people killed. The case was handed over to the CBI, and the trial was moved to a Maharashtra court by the Supreme Court.
On January 21, 2008, a special CBI court in Mumbai sentenced the 11 to life imprisonment on charges of gang-raping Bilkis Bano and murdering seven members of her family. The Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court later upheld their convictions. On August 15, the 11 men convicted in the case were released from the Godhra jail under the Gujarat government’s remission policy.
While Bilkis Bano rape case is horrifying, comparing it to Shraddha Walkar murder case is an insult to both the women. To say how both women underwent same atrocity undermines what both women went through individually. Walkar was strangled and her body then chopped off and parts preserved in refrigerator and disposed of over days in jungle in Delhi. As of now there is no report of sexual assault committed on her. Bano, on the other hand, has been a victim of rape, has witnessed murder of her own child in front of her eyes. Bano has also lived her trauma for past 20 years as a survivor. To compare both the brutalities and draw parallels is horrifying and an injustice to both the women. This pitting one atrocity against another is an unfortunate comparison and a disservice for the women who deserve justice.
