SC upholds death penalty to 2 sisters in Anjanabai Gavit case

Oneindia.in

August 31, 2006

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) Delivering a speedy ruling in the sensational Anjanabai Gavit serial murder case, the Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence awarded to two sisters, convicted of murdering five children out of the 13 they had kidnapped and forced into petty crime.

A bench, comprising Justices K G Balakrishnan and G P Mathur, dismissed appeals by sisters -- Renuka Kiran Shinde (31) and Seema Mohan Gavit (29) against the judgement of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court in September 2004 confirming the death sentence awarded by the Kolhapur sessions court in 2001, holding that there were no mitigating circumstances in favour of the two appelants.

''Going into the details of the case, we find no mitigating circumstances against them apart from the fact they are women.

Further the nature of their crime and the systematic way in which each child was kidnapped and killed amply demonstrates the depravity of the mind of the appelants. They indulged in criminal activities for a very long period and continued till they were caught by the police. They very cleverly executed plans of kidnapping the children, and the moment they were no longer useful, killed them and threw the dead body at some deserted place,'' they said.

The bench said that the sisters had ''not been committing crimes under compulsion but took it very casually and killed all these children, least bothering about their life or the agony of their parents.'' ''We do not think that these appelants are likely to reform, and will remain a menace to society. The inhabitants of the locality in which the two were living was so horrified that they could not send their children to school for the fear that they would be kidnapped or killed,'' it further noted.

The bench also vacated the stay it had granted against the execution of both, when their appeal had been admitted and directed the authorities concerned to make all arrangements for the execution of the penalty.

Renuka alias Rinku, her husband Kiran Shinde and her sister along with their mother, Anjanabai Gavit, were part of a gang that kidnapped children from Thane, Nashik and other areas between 1990 and 1996 and forced them to become beggars or commit petty thefts.

Later, when the children began to pose a problem, they were mercilessly killed by the gang members.

The gang had kidnapped over a dozen children in this period, all of whom later disappeared. The murders of the children, aged between seven months and four years, had gone undetected for nearly six years. While there were no eyewitnesses in the case, the prosecution had relied on the testimony of Renuka's husband, who had turned approver.

Facing charges for the murder of nine children, the two sisters and their mother Anjanabai were ultimately convicted of the murder of five -- identified as Santosh, Anjali, Shradha, Gauri and Pankaj.

However, Anjanabai had died in custody in 1997, a little over an year after her arrest.

Death for child-smash sisters

TelegraphIndia.com

August 31, 2006

Two sisters who kidnapped children and killed them by smashing their heads against walls or electricity poles could become the first women to be hanged in Independent India.

The Supreme Court today upheld the death sentences awarded to Renuka Kiran Shinde, 39, and Seema Mohan Gavit, 35, refusing leniency to the “depraved” women and saying they were unlikely to reform themselves if given a second chance at life.

The Pune-based sisters were accused of kidnapping 13 children under five between 1990 and 1996 and killing nine of them, but only five of the murders could be proved.

They would carry the children in their arms to avoid suspicion while moving about in crowded places, snatching purses. The children were murdered when they grew too old to be carried about, or if they tended to cry in public and arouse suspicion.

When one such child’s cries led to a scuffle outside a temple in Kolhapur, the sisters threw him down to momentarily divert the public’s attention. As they seized their chance to escape, the women somehow managed to pick the severely injured child up and take him along. Their mother Anjanabai later killed him by smashing his head against a pole, police said.

Another victim, a three-year-old who talked to passers-by about his parents, was hung upside down from the ceiling and his head was repeatedly slammed against a wall. Among the other victims were two 18-month-olds and a two-year-old.

The apex court took note of how the women killed the children “the moment they were no longer useful’’, acting not “under any compulsion but very casually… least bothering about their lives or agony of their parents”.

If the court — which has described the case as “rarest of the rare” — rejects the sisters’ review plea, their only hope would be their mercy petition that has been lying with the President for five years.

Although many women are awarded the death sentence in India, legal experts couldn’t recall any being executed after Independence. Some have had their sentences commuted — as happened with Rajiv Gandhi murder accused Nalini — and the mercy petitions of many more are pending.

Lawyers said this was probably the first case in India where two women had been sentenced to death.

Seema and Renuka were allegedly helped by Anjanabai and Renuka’s husband Kiran Shinde in kidnapping the children from railway stations, bus stands and temples in Kolhapur, Thane, Mumbai and Nashik.

Anjanabai died a year after the gang’s arrest in 1996 while Kiran had all charges dropped against him after he turned approver and testified against his wife and sister-in-law.

After a three-year trial, a sessions court awarded the death sentences to the sisters in 2001 and Bombay High Court upheld them in 2004.

“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 the appellants (the convicts),’’ the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said today.

“We have carefully considered the whole aspect of the case and are also alive to the new trends in sentencing system in criminology. We do not think that these appellants are likely to be reformed."

Killer sisters nurtured by mother

TelegraphIndia.com

August 31, 2006

It started as personal vendetta and soon turned into a profession.

Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit abducted their first victim in 1990, police said. It was the elder daughter of their father’s second wife.

The sisters, whose death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court today, went on a kidnapping spree after that. All their victims were little children, some of whom were killed, and the hand that rocked the crime cradle was their 58-year-old mother’s.

Anjanabai Gavit, a resident of Kothrud in Pune, was never an average housewife. There are 125 cases lodged against her for petty thefts like picking pockets and snatching gold chains at crowded railway stations.

But the small-time criminal turned cold-blooded kidnapper when her husband Mohan left her to marry another woman named Pratima in 1990. Along with daughters Renuka and Seema and Renuka’s husband Kiran Shinde, Anjanabai, then aged 58, plotted to abduct Mohan and Pratima’s first daughter.

The second daughter was to be kidnapped in 1996, but police caught up with her and her family.

The six years in between saw Anjanabai mastermind the kidnappings of a dozen children in Nashik, Pune and Kolhapur.

Investigations revealed that the family would take the abducted children along to distract attention while they carried out petty crimes — and to win the police’s sympathy if caught. But when the kids outgrew their utility or stood in the family’s way, they were done away with.

Kiran, who turned approver in the case, gave the police an account of the torture inflicted on the children.

Santosh, barely 18 months old, began crying one evening at a bus stand. Fearing he would draw people’s attention, the women banged his head against the floor and then an iron pole till he died. His body was thrown under an autorickshaw. Another 18-month-old, Bhavna, was gagged, bundled into a handbag and dumped in the ladies’ toilet of a cinema.

Two-year-old Naresh was starved and beaten to death because he would wail for his mother. Three-year-old Pankaj made an even bigger mistake. He would talk to passers-by about his parents. So he was hung upside down from the ceiling and his head slammed against a wall.

The drive for personal revenge came back to haunt the family in 1996, when the sisters set out to claim their 14th victim — their second step-sister. But this time, they landed in the police net.

The Gavits and the Shindes were lodged in Yerwada prison, where Anjanabai died a year later.

The trial began in September 1998, and three years later, Kolhapur additional district and sessions judge G.L. Yedke awarded the death penalty to Renuka and Seema in a crowded courtroom.

Charges were dropped against Renuka’s husband Kiran, who had testified against the women.

The couple have four children of their own. They were handed over to Kiran’s Pune-based mother.