India: Top Court Cancels Early Release of Gujarat Rapists

Facts

India's Supreme Court on Monday canceled the premature release of 11 men sentenced to life in prison for gang-raping a pregnant woman and murdering her relatives in 2002, ruling the Gujarat government didn't have the authority to reduce their sentence.¹
Bilkis Bano was five months pregnant when she was gang-raped by a mob — which reportedly killed seven of her relatives, including her three-year-old daughter — during the Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat state in 2002.²
In 2008, her tormentors were sentenced to life in prison for rape and murder. However, the Gujarat government released the convicts based on a law that allows prisoners to be freed once they have served 14 years of their incarceration.³
In its verdict, the top court ruled that the Gujarat government 'acted in complicity with the convicts' and that the remission order had been obtained by 'playing fraud on the court.' Moreover, the judges noted that only the state of Maharashtra could consider the rapists' remission, not Gujarat.⁴
As the Supreme Court's order nullifies the Gujarat government's remission, the convicts turn themselves in and return to their prison sentence within two weeks.⁵
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time of the riots, has been accused of ordering the state authorities to allow the violence to continue for weeks, though an inquiry has found no evidence to prosecute him.²

Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Independent. The men who committed these heinous crimes against women and children should never have been allowed remission. The fact that these criminals were released from prison and received a hero's welcome at home shows a callous disregard for women. The rule of the law must prevail, and the rapists must be returned to prison.
Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by BBC News. While the crimes committed by the convicts were undeniably awful, they have served their time. The rapists had been released because of their age and their good behavior, not because they were innocent. After 14 years in prison, these men have been reformed, and it's time to move forward. Ordering them back to prison serves no one.