2002 Gujarat riot victim Bilkis Bano to get Rs 50 lakh compensation: Supreme Court

New Delhi : Bilkis Bano - whose brutal gangrape and family's massacre became one of the worst instances of the brutality of the 2002 riots in Gujarat – must be given a compensation of Rs 50 lakhs from the state government, ruled Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Knowing about her bizarre state of life she is leading since 2002, the top court also ordered to provide her with a government job and a place to live.

The Gujarat government told the Court that it has taken action against police officers involved in the case, blocking the pension of four and demoting a fifth.

Rejecting the state government's offer of Rs 5 lakh compensation, Bilkis Bano had asked for  an exemplary compensation and an action against the police officials who tried to derail the investigation and were convicted by the Bombay High Court.

Bilkis Bano's family was attacked by a mob at Randhikpur, a village near Ahmedabad, during the post-Godhra riots on 3 March 2002. Fourteen members of her family were murdered. The youngest of them was Bilkis Bano's three-year-old daughter Saleha, whose head was smashed with a rock.

Bilkis Bano, who was pregnant at the time, was gang raped. She survived only because the men left her for dead.

In 2008, 11 men were convicted by the court and were awarded with life imprisonment.