West Bengal MP Mahua Moitra on Saturday termed the BJP's Gujarat model as "hate and kill, then fete and reward", in regard to the ruling party giving the poll ticket to its Godhra MLA who called Bilkis Bano's convicted rapists-murderers "sanskari (cultured) Brahmins" not capable of committing the heinous acts.
The 11 men, sentenced to life in jail, were released on the 75th Independence Day by the state government—with approval of the Centre—"on account of good behaviour" after serving 15 years.
Moitra, a Lok Sabha member from Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress party, is among petitioners in the Supreme Court, seeking a reversal of the decision.
BJP MLA Chandrasinh Raulji, earlier with the Congress, was part of the panel that decided to release the convicts who spent 15 years in jail. A former state minister, he is a six-time MLA from Godhra, the town that was at the centre of the 2002 riots, in which Bilkis Bano was gangraped and nine members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter, were killed by the 11 men.
He had defended those men's release in an online interview: "They were Brahmins, and Brahmins are known to have good sanskar (cultural values). It might have been someone's ill-intention to corner and punish them."
