Protests continue in India against the government's decision to free 11 men sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a Muslim woman during the 2002 religious uprisings.
In New Delhi, protesters chanted slogans and asked the administration of the western state of Gujarat to lift the measure.
The 11 men were released with suspended sentences on August 15 , when India celebrated 75 years of independence: they were sentenced in 2008 for rape and murder. The victim is now about 40 years old: she was pregnant at the time.
In 2002 in Gujarat there was one of the worst religious uprisings that India has experienced since its independence in 1947 from the United Kingdom: over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed. They also included seven family members of the woman who was the victim of violence, including her three-year-old daughter.
Officials from Gujarat, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata party holds power, said the request for release of the detainees was upheld because they had spent more than 14 years in prison and were released under a 1992 amnesty in force at the time of their sentence. A more recent version of the law adopted in 2014 by the federal government prohibits release for those convicted of certain crimes, including rape and murder.
(Unioneonline / D)
