Decision on mercy petition delayed; Court upholds life sentence for sisters who killed nine children

The Bombay High Court has commuted the death sentence of the accused to life imprisonment for delaying the decision on a Mercy Plea petition to the President. The court acquitted Renuka and Seema, accused in the child massacre case. The court ruled that the unreasonable delay was unconstitutional.

Renu and Seema, two half-sisters, were arrested in 1996 in connection with the kidnapping of 13 children and the murder of nine of them. The practice was to pocket children and kill opponents. Every murder was indescribably brutal. The Sessions Court went to the Supreme Court with the death sentence. The death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2006. With this, a mercy petition was submitted to the President. Defendants approached the High Court stating that no decision had been taken for eight years. In the same year, in 2014, the accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case were granted leniency, citing delays in deciding on the mercy petition.

The High Court observed that the unreasonable delay in the mercy petition was unconstitutional. It is also an injustice done to the victims of the cruelty of the accused. The court said it could not accept the indefinite delay in the decision on the mercy petition at a time when communication was so fast due to the advancement of technology. Supreme Court judgments are also pending in this regard. However, the court rejected the demand of the accused, who has been in jail for 25 years and should be released.

Pic Courtesy: google/ images are subject to copyright