sisters awaiting death sentence for mass murders move HC

Two sisters from Kolhapur whose mercy petitions against capital punishment were rejected by the President recently, today moved the Bombay High Court praying their death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.
The sisters--Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit--have, in their petition, contended that the President had taken more than five years to decide their mercy petitions when such a plea should have been disposed of within three months. On this ground alone, their death sentence may be commuted to life term, the duo prayed.
The petition, filed through their lawyer Sudeep Jaiswal, came up before Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode who posted it for hearing tomorrow.

The judges also asked the petitioner's lawyer to show judgements which empower the high court to entertain a petition when the Supreme Court has confirmed death penalty and the President has rejected the mercy petition.
Before posting the petition for hearing tomorrow, the judges sought to know whether the execution of death sentence was to be carried out immediately.
Prosecutor S S Shinde sought time to seek instructions and after 30 minutes informed the court that the sentence would not be carried out immediately. The judges then decided to hear the matter tomorrow.

The two sisters were sentenced to death in 2001 for kidnapping 13 children and killing nine of them between 1990 and October 1996. They were assisted in the crime by their mother Anjana Gavit and Renuka's husband Kiran Shinde. Anjana died in custody, while Kiran turned an approver.

They used to force the children to beg, commit petty thefts and pickpocketing. The children were starved to force them to commit crimes. After having sufficiently used the children in crime, they banged their head against walls and killed them.
The sisters, who could be the first women convicts to be sent to the gallows since independence, are currently lodged in Pune's Yerwada prison and were recently informed about President's decision to reject their mercy petitions. The 14-day buffer period before execution expired on August 16.