Renuka Bai @ Rinku @ Ratan vs State of Maharashtra Case

 Renuka Bai @ Rinku @ Ratan & Anr. vs State of Maharashtra - Supreme Court Case Summary of Leading Case - 

On 31st August, a two Judge Bench in Renuka Bai @ Rinku @ Ratan & Anr. vs State of Maharashtra [Criminal Appeal No.722 of 2005] upheld the death penalty imposed by Courts below on two women (Appellants) for kidnapping several children below five years of age and killing them. Going by the details of the case, the Bench found “no mitigating circumstances in favour of the appellants”, except for the fact that they were women. It held that 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.”

”These appellants indulged in criminal activities for a very long period and continued it till they were caught by the police. They very cleverly executed their plans of kidnapping the children and the moment they were no longer useful, they killed them and threw the dead body at some deserted place. The appellants had been a menace to the society and the people in the locality were completely horrified and they could not send their children even to schools. The appellants had not been committing these crimes under any compulsion but they took it very casually and killed all these children, least bothering about their lives or agony of their parents”, the Bench said. On careful consideration of the whole aspects of the case, the Bench did not think that the appellants were likely to be reformed and confirmed the conviction and also the death penalty imposed on them by the Courts below.

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