New Delhi: The Bombay HC has commuted the death sentence of the sisters Suuma Gavit and Renuka Shinde to a life sentence after a delay of seven years in their execution. The duo was held guilty of kidnapping 14 children and killing five of them between 1990 and 1996. They have been in prison since their arrest in 1996.
A bench of Justice Nitin Jamdar and S V Kotval gave its verdict on Tuesday saying that the death sentence has been commuted to a life sentence because of inordinate delay in execution by the union and state administration.
“The inordinate delay in executing the death sentence even after their (Shinde and Gavit) mercy petition was rejected shows the casual approach of state officers. The state machinery showed indifference. That it took over seven years for the movement of files is unacceptable. Dereliction of duty of the state is the reason for commuting the death sentence,” the bench observed.
The 25-Year-Old Case
The three women were arrested by police in 1996 for kidnapping and using children to rob people and later kill them once they were done. Renuka Shinde, Seema Gavit, and their mother Anjanabai Gavit were equal partners in the crime for nearly six years. Renuka Shinde’s husband was also an accomplice to the crimes but had become a police witness later on.
A Series Of Mercy Petitions
The sisters were arrested in October 1996 along with their mother and were sentenced to death in 2001 by the Kolhapur sessions court noting their heinous crimes. In 2004 the decision was upheld by the Bombay HC and in 2006 by the Supreme Court.
While the mother Anjanabai died due to illness in 1998, the sisters filed a mercy petition with the Governor in 2008. The Governor rejected the plea in 2012-13 stating the nature of their crime. The duo then approached the President who also rejected the mercy petition in 2014.
The sisters then appealed in the court that due to the delay in their execution, they have been living in fear of death for the past 25 years. Hence they requested the court to commute their death sentence to a life sentence and release them as they have already spent 25 years in prison.
In December 2021, the bench of Justices Jamdar and Kotwal had heard the partition and upheld the life sentence. However, now the Bombay HC bench has decided to commute the first half of the request. The life sentence has been commuted, but the sisters will have to be in prison till their natural death.
“We, however, decline to release them forthwith, as the crime committed by them is heinous. The brutality with which the children were murdered is beyond words to condemn. The SC also dismissed their petition saying that they were a menace to the society,” the court stated.