The Bombay High Court on Thursday rejected a CBI plea seeking death sentence for at least three of the 11 convicts in the March 2002 Bilkis Bano gang-rape case in Gujarat.

The court also set aside the acquittal of five policemen in the same case and directed the Central Bureau of Investigation agency to probe them.

On March 3, 2002, at the height of the Gujarat riots following the Godhra train burning, Bilkis Bano and her family members were attacked by a riotous mob in Devgad-Baria village near Dahod.