11 men receive life sentences in Mumbai for gang rape

    A woman’s 15-year battle for justice has come to an end with 11 men receiving life sentences for rape and murder in Mumbai.

    Bilkis Bano was gang-raped and witnessed 14 members of her family being murdered by a mob during the 2002 riots in the western state of Gujarat.

    Five policemen and two doctors were also convicted by the court for destroying evidence.

    Doctors who examined Bano claimed that she had not been raped and some of the dead were buried without post-mortems.

    The Supreme Court transferred her case from Gujarat to Mumbai after a plea from the victim that her local court system would not deliver her justice.

    Many observers have questioned why the men were not handed capital punishment after four men convicted of raping a 23-year-old student in Delhi in 2012 received death sentences.

    However, Bano has said to the BBC that she does not believe in revenge she “just wants them to understand what they’ve done.”

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