India court puts on hold sisters' execution

A court in India has put on hold the execution of two sisters convicted of murdering children they kidnapped and forced to beg and steal. 

Renuka Shinde, 45, and her step-sister Seema Gavit, 39, were convicted of carrying out the crimes in the state of Maharashtra between 1994 and 1996.

They kidnapped 13 children from train stations, temples, fairs and gardens and killed at least five of them.

Few women have been given death penalty, rarely carried out in India.

In 2006, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentences, saying it did not find "any mitigating circumstances in favour of those women except for the fact that they are women".

Police recovered the bodies of five murdered children - all aged between one and five years old.

The sisters had lodged an appeal in the Mumbai High Court on the grounds that the 13-year delay in carrying out the death sentence was excessive.

The high court has now fixed September 9 for the next hearing.

BBC