Two murderous women will be first female execution in India

Two women, who kidnapped 13 young children and forced them to work as pickpockets before murdering them are about to become the first women ever executed in India.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit became India's most notorious serial killers when they were convicted of a series of child murders in 2001 and sentenced to death. They were charged with 13 kidnappings and ten murders, but have only been found guilty of killing five.

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Thirteen years after their convictions, they are finally going to be hung at Maharashtra's Yerwada Jail after India's president rejected their final appeal for mercy.

This scheduled execution has revived painful memories in India. One of the victims was a two-year-old infant who died after his head was smashed against an electricity pole.

The sisters were barely adults when they began their killing spree-Seema was just 15, and her older sister 17. Their mother inducted them into their life of crime, when she taught them how to pick pockets in crowded marketplaces.

They moved between three towns: Nashik, Kolhapur and Pune, kidnapping children they found in the street, and using them to distract marks while they were pick pocketed, or used to elicit sympathy if caught.

Their last victim was a nine-year-old, Kranti, the natural sister of Seema, who was killed by their mother Anjana and dumped in a field.

The judges at the trial said that the murders had been carried out casually and unnecessarily. "They very cleverly executed their plans of kidnapping the children and the moment they were no longer useful, they killed [the children]," the judges said.

Rejecting an initial appeal in 2006, Justices Balakrishnan and Mathur explained that the sisters' gender should not affect capital punishment: "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," reads the judgment. "We do not think that these appellants are likely to reform, and will remain a menace to society."

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