Curtains are finally set to come down on one of India’s most squalid crime sagas with President Pranab Mukherjee last month rejecting the mercy petitions of half-sisters Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit. 
 
 The duo, along with their mother Anjana Gavit, stand accused of the kidnapping of 13 children and the murder of 10 of them across various districts in Western Maharashtra. In 2006, they were convicted by the Supreme Court of five of those murders. 
 
 Since then, a Damocles sword has been hanging over the fate of the duo, set to earn notoriety as the first women to be hanged in the history of Independent India. 
 
 The two-week buffer period before their execution came to an end last Saturday. 
 
 ‘No intimation yet’ 
 
 
 
 “There has been no intimation on the issue from the State Home Ministry as yet. There has been no word on the black warrant,” said Yogesh Desai, Superintendent, Yerwada Central Jail, while refusing to comment on the preparations. 
 
 The sisters, hailing from Kolhapur, were initiated into crime by their mother while still in their teens. They were sentenced to death by the Kolhapur Sessions Court in 2001. Since then, they have been languishing in Yerwada Jail. 
 
 Between 1990 and 1996, they allegedly killed nine children — all under the age of 10 — by starving them or banging their heads (especially those of toddlers) against walls or electricity poles. The kidnappings and murders were spread over Pune, Thane, Kalyan, Kolhapur, and Nashik. 
 
 “The sisters’ modus operandi was using small children, often toddlers, as diversions to distract the public while one of them was engaged in stealing purses. When in the danger of being caught, the other used to throw or bang the child to the ground or any hard surface. The object was to elicit sympathy by manipulating the public’s emotions,” says human rights lawyer and activist, Asim Sarode. 
 
 Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Sarode, who, at one time, assisted the Apex Court judge with the case, recounts the eerie calmness with which Renuka Shinde answered his questions about the murders, all the time stroking a stray cat. 
 
 “In one of their particularly gruesome murders, they hung a two-year-old upside down, bashed his head against the wall and chopped him to pieces. They then went for a movie at a local theatre in Kolhapur, eating bhel puri. All the while, the bag, with the chopped remains remained under their feet,” he says. 
 
 “While I’m professionally and personally against the capital punishment, this is indeed one of the rarest of the rare cases where the perpetrators deserve the death sentence,” remarked Mr. Sarode. 
 
 Files appeal 
 
 
 
 Following the end of the buffer period, the duo has filed an appeal at the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court. According to the sisters’ defence counsel in Kolhapur, Manik Mulik, the murders had been committed by their mother, Anjana, who died two years after the duo’s arrest in 1996. 
 
 “The case against the sisters primarily rests on the statement of Renuka’s husband, Kiran Shinde, who turned approver naming Anjana as having carried out the kidnappings and killings. As Anjana died even before the trial began, the police made him change his statement in which he blamed his wife (Renuka) and sister-in-law (Seema Gavit),” said Mr. Mulik. ||||| Advocate will move Bombay High Court on Tuesday. Women, who are lodged in Yerwada jail, killed kids between 1990 and 1996. 
 
 
 
 The Kolhapur sisters, who were set to become the first women convicts to be hanged in Independent India, might get temporary reprieve. Challenging the rejection of their mercy petitions, the advocate Sudeep Jaiswal will move the Bombay High Court on Tuesday. 
 
 
 
 The sisters, Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit were sentenced to death in 2001 for kidnapping 13 children and killing nine of them between June 1990 and October 1996. They were helped by their mother Anjana Gavit and Renuka's husband Kiran Shinde. They forced the children to help them commit petty thefts and pick pockets. Anjana Gavit died in jail while Kiran Shinde became an approver. 
 
 
 
 Till the time the court decides on the petition, their execution will be stayed. Speaking to Mumbai Mirror, Jaiswal said he has informed the jail authorities about the move in writing. 
 
 
 
 Additional Director General of Police (Jails) Meeran Borwankar said, "We are following all legal procedures and the recent Supreme Court guidelines." 
 
 
 
 The sisters, lodged at Yerwada Jail, were notified about the rejection of their mercy petition verbally earlier in August and the 14-day buffer period before their execution ends this Saturday. 
 
 
 
 According to Jaiswal, the order sent to the jail authorities read, "The report of communication of rejection of mercy petition of condemned prisoner shall be submitted with physical and mental health report."A minimum buffer period of 14 days is given between the receipt of communication of rejection of mercy petition and execution, so that the convicts can prepare themselves, settle affairs with family members or avail any judicial remedy. 
 
 
 
 Meanwhile, Jaiswal said, "I met the two sisters recently. They are in solitary confinement. Their physical condition has deteriorated and they look like living skeletons. Their weight has dropped below 35 kg. A Supreme Court judgment states convicts in ill health cannot be executed." He added, "In the case of Nalini, the key accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the execution was stayed because there was a delay of two years. In this case, there has been a delay of over six years." ||||| MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) — Jeffrey Willis was sentenced Monday morning for the murder of Rebekah Bletsch, but not before an unusual exit from a Muskegon courtroom. 
 
 Shortly after Willis entered the courtroom, he asked to leave. 
 
 Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson called the request “unprecedented,” but Judge William Marietti pointed out there is no law that requires Willis to be present for his sentencing. 
 
 “It’s unfortunate that he’s choosing this cowardly way of doing it. That certainly he’s been convicted, the family deserves the right to address the court which they intend to do and they also in some respects deserve the right to address the person convicted of killing their daughter and sister. But, that being said, whatever the court decides, the court decides,” said Hilson. 
 
 As Willis was being escorted out, he turned and blew a kiss to the people in the courtroom, some of which were calling him a coward. 
 
 >>App users: Watch Willis’ sentencing here. 
 
 Shortly after Willis’ exit Monday, Bletsch’s family tearfully read statements aimed at Willis, calling him a “coward” and “monster.” 
 
 “I’m angry that nothing I say today will bring my sister back. What I wouldn’t give to hear that laugh again,” Bletsch’s sister Nicole Winberg told the court. 
 
 “This coward should have been here to listen to us. We deserve a right to tell him exactly how we feel. And for him to walk out on us was just horrible. He doesn’t deserve anything,” added Bletsch’s mother. 
 
 Bletsch, 36, was shot and killed in June 2014 while jogging along a road near her home in Dalton Township, north of Muskegon. 
 
 “Becky is so much more than a jogger on the side of the road. She is a mother, a wife, a daughter, sister, aunt, friend, co-worker and a community member. She brought so much to all of us and to the world,” said Bletsch’s other sister, Jessica Josephson. 
 
 “Because of this monster, all we have left are memories of Becky and I won’t get to make new ones. It breaks my heart to think about all the big moments in our lives we won’t get to share with Becky,” she added. 
 
 Hilson also read a letter from Bletsch’s husband. 
 
 “Certainly today, his antics of leaving the courtroom speak volumes to me as to his cowardice,” Hilson said right before Judge William Marietti handed down the sentence. 
 
 The judge sentenced Willis to life in prison without the possibility of parole for felony first-degree murder as well as a consecutive three-year sentence on a felony firearm charge. 
 
 “Jeffrey gets to do whatever disgusting act he wants and in his small mind there’s nothing, in his small mind he thinks there’s nothing wrong with that. And he even thought he would get away with it. Well not anymore, monster. Your sick and perverted days have come to an end,” Josephson said. 
 
 “Knowing your only way out of prison is in a body bag brings a smile to my face,” she added. 
 
 The judge declined to comment during Willis’ sentencing because of the defendant’s pending cases in the kidnapping and murder of Jessica Heeringa and the attempted abduction of a 16-year-old girl. 
 
 Willis was arrested in 2016 after the teen told authorities he tried to kidnap her. The teen’s report to police broke the Bletsch case wide open. When investigators searched Willis’ minivan, authorities say they found the gun that killed Bletsch. 
 
 “Most of all, I would like to thank MJN. I can never explain to you how much my heart goes out to you. You are so brave. I believe my sister was watching over you that day,” Josephson said. 
 
 During Willis’ trial, investigators said that a sex toy and glove found in Willis’ van had Bletsch’s DNA on them. Investigators also explained the ballistics testing that matched the gun from the minivan to Blestch’s murder. 
 
 Last month, jurors convicted Willis of first-degree murder. 
 
 >>Inside woodtv.com: Complete coverage of the Jeffrey Willis investigation 
 
 In March, Willis will be back in court to stand trial for Heeringa’s disappearance and death. She vanished from a gas station in Norton Shores during her shift on the night of April 26, 2013. 
 
 Her body has never been found, but prosecutors say a file titled “VICS” found on one of Willis’ hard drives and containing a subfolder labeled with Heeringa’s initials and a code indicating the date of her disappearance is evidence she’s dead. Another subfolder in that “VICS” file was labeled with Bletsch’s name and a code for the date of her death. 
 
 Bletsch’s family also wants Willis’ cousin, Kevin Bluhm, locked up. Bluhm was arrested for lying to police and eventually pleaded no contest to being an accessory after the fact in Heeringa’s murder. Bluhm told police he helped Willis dispose of Heeringa’s body, then told investigators he lied. 
 
 Bluhm will be sentenced in January. 
 
 “As a family, we can’t sit back and watch him be released when he could have said something and saved my sister,” Josephson said. “To me, he’s just as guilty as Willis.” 
 
 The family made a plea to Willis to help get his cousin locked up for life. 
 
 “Now would be a really good time to think about giving up some real evidence to keep your cousin behind bars, too,” Josephson added. 
 
 They asked that Willis give up the location of Heeringa’s remains. 
 
 “I ask that he find it in himself to give the Heeringa family their daughter back. They deserve a body to lay to rest,” Nicole Winberg said. 
 
 –24 Hour News 8’s Heather Walker contributed to this report. 
 
 >>App users: Interactive timeline of Willis investigation 
 
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– Serial killer sisters, who kidnapped and murdered at least five children, are poised to become the first women hanged in India, reports the Washington Post. “This is indeed one of the rarest of the rare cases where the perpetrators deserve the death sentence,” a human rights lawyer tells the Hindu. Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit were charged in 2001 with 13 kidnappings and 10 murders, and convicted of five killings, reports the Telegraph. Their killing spree began in 1990 when the girls were teen pickpockets and their mother told them to kidnap her ex's daughter, their half-sister. After that, mother and daughters kidnapped street kids ages 1 to 5, turned them into pickpockets and decoys, then killed them. Their mother died in prison, the Mumbai Mirror reports. Some of the sisters' ghastly crimes: They killed an infant by bashing his head against an electric pole, dropped a 7-month old to stop its crying, bludgeoned a boy while he hung upside down, and dismembered another and stuffed his parts in a bag, the Post reports. The killing ended as it began—with a revenge kidnapping and murder in 1996, also plotted by their mother as revenge against her ex. The 9-year-old, his daughter, was dumped in a field and an eventual investigation led to the sisters' other crimes. The sisters say they're innocent and wrongly convicted. A recent plea for mercy was rejected.