The victim, Bilkis Bano, was three months pregnant when she and 15 members of her family tried to flee their village in 2002 during Hindu-Muslim violence in the state of Gujarat, in western India.
On Monday, India’s Supreme Court said that the Gujarat government had acted beyond its powers in granting the assailants early release from prison in August 2022.
The court ordered the men, who had been greeted by right-wing Hindu nationalists with sweets and garlands upon their return home in 2022, to surrender within two weeks.
Vrinda Grover, a human rights lawyer based in New Delhi, said that the court’s decision amounted to “a scathing indictment of the state of Gujarat.”
Mr. Modi has long been accused of having turned a blind eye to, or even encouraged, the mob violence, though the Supreme Court has cleared him of the allegations.
The Indian home affairs minister, Amit Shah, considered Mr. Modi’s right-hand man, approved the Gujarat decision.
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