Bombay High Court to decide on Kolhapur sisters` plea against execution

The Bombay High Court will on Wednesday decide on the petition filed by two Kolhapur-based sisters Renuka Shinde (45) and Seema Gavit (39) for commuting their death sentence to life.

Zee Media Bureau/Ritesh K Srivastava

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court will on Wednesday decide on the petition filed by two Kolhapur-based sisters Renuka Shinde (45) and Seema Gavit (39) for commuting their death sentence to life.

The two sisters had yesterday moved the Bombay High Court after their mercy petition was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee.

The high court yesterday recorded a statement by the state government lawyer that Renuka and Seema will not be executed on Wednesday.

Public prosecutor Sandeep Shinde informed the court that Yogesh Desai, the superintendent of Yerawada jail, where the sisters are lodged, told in a telephonic conversation that the authorities were not likely to carry out the execution in a day.
He said it was because the sisters moved the Bombay High Court on Tuesday to have the death sentence commuted to life.

A bench of Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode said that then "the question of grant of a stay on the execution does not arise``.

However, the court posted the petition filed by the sisters for commuting their sentence to life for hearing and for interim orders at 3 pm today.

The sisters were sentenced to death for the kidnap and murder of 14 children by the Kolhapur sessions judge in 2001 and have been in custody since 1996. The SC had upheld the death sentence in 2006 and the mercy plea was filed in 2010. The delay is what the sisters are citing in the plea for commuting the sentence.

With PTI inputs

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