Maharashtra Supports Death Penalty To Sisters Who Kidnapped 14 Children, Killed 5

The Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that it supported the death sentence awarded to Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit - the sisters convicted for kidnapping of 14 children and murdering five of them between 1990 and 1996 - despite the delay.

A Sessions Court had awarded capital punishment in 2001 for the heinous crime which had sent shockwaves across Maharashtra.

Public prosecutor Aruna Pai made the statement on behalf of the government before a bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and SV Kotwal which had asked the state to put forth its stand while reserving its order on the review petition last Saturday.

"Considering the seriousness of the crime, we support the death sentence in spite of the delay. If the court is commuting it (to a life sentence), it should be till the end of their natural life," Ms Pai said.

Shinde and Gavit were tried for kidnapping 14 children and murdering five of them in Kolhapur. They were convicted in 2001. In 2004, the High Court confirmed their death sentence and in 2006, the Supreme Court upheld it, too.

But the two, who have been in custody since October 1996, had filed a review petition in the High Court in 2014 seeking a commutation of the death penalty, citing delay by the state in dealing with their mercy petitions as the ground. The delay violated their fundamental right to life, they contended.

The High Court had earlier remarked that there had been an "inordinate delay" of over eight years in deciding the mercy petitions.

The High Court will pass the order on the petition in due course.