Times of India

NEW DELHI, Sep 1: The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence given to two women from Maharashtra for committing a series of murders of minors, whom they kidnapped and used for theft, saying they are unlikely to be reformed.

"We have carefully considered the whole aspects of the case and are also alive to the new trends in sentencing system in criminology. We do not think that these appellants (convicts) are likely to be reformed," a Bench comprising Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice G P Mathur said.

Confirming the capital punishment awarded to the two sisters -- Renuka Bai and Seema Gavit -- of Pune by the Bombay High Court in five such cases of murder involving children up to the age of five years, the Bench said, "We confirm the conviction and death sentence imposed on them".

Vacating the stay on the execution of the capital punishment, the court said, "The authorities are directed to take such further steps as are necessary to carry out execution of capital punishment imposed on them".

The two sisters, along with their mother Anjana Bai, had committed the offence between 1990 and 1996 in different towns of Maharashtra like Kolhapur, Nasik, Shirdi and Pune, and police had charge-sheeted them for kidnapping 13 children, out of which nine were killed by them.

During the trial, their mother died. The trial court had held them guilty in six cases of murders and in the appeal the High Court had upheld their conviction in five.

Kiran Shinde, husband of Renuka Bai, had turned approver in the case. Though he had suppressed some material facts, the High Court was of the view that his evidence was fully corroborated by other evidence.

The apex court, while concurring with the findings of High Court said, "We do not propose to consider each case but we are satisfied that the evidence adduced by the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that the appellants (convicts) were responsible for series of kidnapping of children and murders and they have been rightly found guilty for these offences".

"The prosecution thus succeeded in proving that these women have committed a series of murders," the Bench said.

Taking into account that in some cases the body could not be found and in some case it was traced, the court said, "The two women kidnapped several children and committed murder in most dastardly manner".

The court held that the murders committed by them had been proven by satisfactory evidence.

"We do not find any reason to interfere with the order of conviction passed by the sessions court and confirmed by the High Court," the Bench said.

"Going by the details of the case, we find no mitigating circumstances in favour of the convicts except for the fact that they are women," it said.

Ruling out the possibility that the women were likely to be reformed, the court said, "The nature of the crime and the systematic way in which each child was kidnapped and killed amply demonstrates the depravity of the mind of appellants."

Observing that the two women had been a "menace" to the society and the people in the locality were completely horrified, the court said they were not committing these crimes under any compulsion but "they took it very casually and killed all these children, least bothering about their lives or agony of their parents”.