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ShareMumbai: A mother and daughter duo sentenced to death in a 2006 Pune murder case have become a source of quandary for the Bombay High Court.
The duo has refused to engage a lawyer to argue their case before the HC, which has to confirm every death sentence awarded by a trial court.
Leela Devasthali and her daughter Deepti were sentenced to death in 2007 for kidnapping and murdering Dr Deepak Mahajan and hacking his body into pieces.
The duo allegedly dressed up as the popular television character, Jassi, at the time of the incident to avoid identification.
The duo had argued their own case during the trial and when the case came up for confirmation before the HC last year, the judges noted certain lacunae in the trial, including the fact that some of the prime prosecution witnesses had not been cross examined by the Devasthalis.
The HC had remanded the matter back to the trial court to finish the cross examination of 15 witnesses, which has since been carried out.
On Monday, Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice RG Ketkar, while hearing the confirmation case, asked the duo if they wanted a lawyer to represent them. The two adamantly refused to take a lawyer and stated that they had no faith in the one who had argued their case earlier and would prefer to conduct the proceedings themselves.
They had also written a letter to the judges hearing the case earlier alleging that their lawyer was not acting as per their instructions.
However, the judges said that they did want history to repeat itself as this was a matter of life and death. The court has asked two senior lawyers, Anil Sakhare and SR Chitnis, to assist the court in deciding whether an amicus curie (friend of court) should be appointed in the case.
The Devasthalis, who are lodged in the Yerwada Jail in Pune, had also stopped eating their meals to protest against their demand for law books not being met by jail officials.
The court has directed them to give a list of books required to the jail superintendent, who will provide the books from the money given by the Devasthalis.
