Nearly seven and a half years it stayed the execution of two gallows-bound Kolhapur sisters Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit whose mercy petitions had been rejected by then President Pranab Mukerjee, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday commuted the two sisters’ death sentence to life imprisonments, after pulling up the officers of the State Government for the inordinate delay in deciding on their mercy petitions.
Passing strictures against the officers of the Maharashtra Government for the delay of “seven years, ten months and 15 days” in deciding the mercy petitions of two Kolhapur sisters who were convicted for the murder of six children, a HC bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and Sarang Kotwal attributed the commutation of the two convicts from capital punishment to life imprisonment to the “gross delay” in the disposal of mercy petitions.
“...the position of law that unexplained and gross delay in disposal of mercy petitions may result in commuting the death sentence was already holding the field when the mercy petitions by and on behalf of the Petitioners were made. Despite this legal position, wholly due to the casual approach of the officers of the Respondent- State, the mercy petitions were not decided for seven years, ten months and 15 days,” the two Judges observed, while commuting the death sentence of two Kolhapur sisters’ death sentence to life imprisonments.
“Though the procedure for deciding the mercy petitions mandates speed and expediency, the State machinery showed indifference and laxity at each stage of processing the files. That it took seven years only for the movement of files such a grave issue is unacceptable when electronic communications were available to be used. The argument of the State that the Petitioners should be executed even today overlooks that it is the dereliction of its officers that is the cause for commuting the death sentence to that of life imprisonment,” the Judges noted.
“The State represents the interest of the society in the criminal justice system. The Respondent-State not only has violated the constitutional rights of the Petitioners but also failed the innocent victims of these heinous crimes,” the Judges said.
While rejecting the petitioners’ prayer that they be directed to be released on bail forthwith having completed 25 years of imprisonment, the bHC bench noted: “That is so because the legal position is that sentence for imprisonment for life is for the remainder of the convict’s life unless the Competent Authority remits the remaining sentence. The crimes committed by the Petitioners are heinous. The brutality shown by the Petitioners in murdering innocent children is beyond words to condemn”.
It may be recalled that the trial court had on June 21, 2001 held Renuka and her Seema Mohan Gavit guilty of killing only six children and convicted them to death for six murders. When the matter came up in appeal before it later, the Bombay High Court later on September 9, 2004 ruled that the Prosecution could prove conclusively the involvement of the two sisters in the murder of five children – Santosh (2), Anjali alias Pinky (2), Shraddha alias Rani alias Bhagyashree (one year, nine months), Kranti (9 years) and Bhavana ( 1 year, six months). Subsequently on August 31, 2006, a two-member bench of the Supreme Court – comprising Justices K G Balakrishnan and G P Mathur – confirmed the death sentence awarded to the two Kolhapur sisters.
In late July 2014, the then President Pranab Mukherjee rejected their mercy petition by President Pranab Mukherjee.
In its order commuting the two Kolhapur sisters, the HC bench noted: “While confirming the death sentence, the High Court found no mitigating circumstances, nor any material that the Petitioners could be reformed or introduced in the society as responsible citizens. The Supreme Court dismissed their appeals observing that there are no circumstances in favour of the Petitioners, and they were a menace to the society”.
“Therefore, if and when the issue of remission of the Petitioners sentence arises for consideration, we have no doubt that the Competent Authority will consider the gravity of the offences, the adverse observations of this Court and the Supreme Court that the Petitioners are beyond being reformed. As a result, the death sentences imposed on the Petitioners - Renuka Kiran Shinde and Seema Mohan Gavit be and hereby are commuted to one of the life imprisonments,” the two Judges ruled.
“The warrant to execute the death sentence of the Petitioners, which was not given effect during the pendency and hearing of this Petition, is cancelled and set aside,” the HC bench added.
It may be recalled that between 1990 and1996, the mother and the Kolhapur daughters had created a sensation by managing to kidnap more than three dozen children – mostly infants and others aged below 12 – forcing them into begging, thefts, kept them half-fed, ensured they did not run away and continued to commit a series of big and small crimes, totalling to over 125 as per police records. In one such theft attempt at a public market place, Seema was caught but Renuka, standing nearby with a kidnapped boy, suddenly banged his head on the footpath.
As the child bled profusely and screamed, the entire crowd’s attention was diverted and the sisters vanished to safety, with their modus operandi succeeding handsomely.
Over the five years from among the 40-plus children they abducted, the police could prove the kidnappings of Santosh, Bunty, Swati, Guddu, Meena, Raja, Shraddha, Kranti, Gauri and Pankaj and brutal killings of Santosh, Shraddha, Gauri, Pankaj and Anjali.
The killings were calculated, calm and coldblooded – one 18-month old boy was killed by hammering his head repeatedly on an iron rod at a bus stand as the trio giggled and ate vada-paav. They killed another two-and-half-year old girl, stuffed her body in a bag and took it to a cinema theatre where they coolly watched a film and later dumped it on the way home.
A year-old boy was killed by repeatedly hammering his head on the stony footpath, another child was inflicted with 42 wounds, and they drew designs on another child of around 4 years.
In 1996, owing to some feuds over the loot-share, at one point, Anjanabai, Renuka and Seema decided to kill her step-daughter from her ex-husband, but a tip-off to the police led to their arrest. Raids on their home proved to be a clincher, the discovery of many children’s clothes and toys, and with Renuka’s husband Kiran turning an approver, the Kolhapur Police finally cracked the sensational case, as the erstwhile royal city of the Chhatrapatis heaved a sigh of relief.
Initially, the three accused – the mother and two daughterts-- remained tight-lipped but after Kiran’s statement, Renuka blurted out everything, revealing the gory details of over 40 kidnappings-cum-murders, though the police could ultimately prove 13 abductions and 5 killings.
A year after her arrest, Anjana Gavit died in jail during pendency of the trial, her two daughters escaped the hangman’s noose on the day of their scheduled hanging on August 19, 2014, and will now spend their living days in Pune’s Yerwada central prison.