"What harm had my child done to them?"

The parents of Bhavana Vispute and Anjali Diwan, two Nashik girls who were killed by Anjana Gavit and her daughters, are still fighting the tears.

NASHIK: It was a crime that shook the nation. Anjana Gavit and her two daughters Renuka and Seema kidnapped and subsequently killed 13 children after using them for petty robbery. They were arrested and tried for the ghastly crime. While Anjana died in jail, the Supreme Court has retained the death sentence awarded to the two sisters. Out of the 13 children kidnapped, three were from Nashik. Two of them, both girls, were brutally murdered. Their families are still trying to cope with the loss.

Bhavana Vispute, who was only a year and a half at that time, had gone to the vegetable market with her grandmother. She went missing from there. Her grandmother Ginabai recounts that fateful evening. "Her mother had told me to take her along with me or she would cry. At the market, I put her down to pay the vendor, but when I turned back for her, she was not to be seen. I searched the entire market, but couldn't find her. I shouted her name. Then I approached two female police officers for help. They took me to the police station to register the case. But nothing helped. She didn't come back," says Bhavana, wiping her tears.  Chhaya Vispute, Bhavana's mother, says, "I almost lost my mind. I was on medication for two years. It was only after the birth of my second child that I came to terms with life. I feel my Bhavana has returned to me as my son. I used to go to the market often with the hope to see my child in some corner. Two years after her disappearance, we were taken to Kolhapur only to be shown a photo of my baby and told she was killed… I wanted to kill Anjana Gavit for taking away my baby. What harm had my child done to her or anyone, she had spent only two years in this world…Why my baby?"

For the family of Anjali Diwan, it is the same story of despair and suffering. Two-year-old Anjali Diwan went missing from a temple when her father put her down from his arms to make an offering. When he returned, she was not there. Says her mother, Sujata Diwan, "It was on the day of Kojagiri Purnima, October 18, 1994, at the Kalika Mandir. We searched the whole night. It was only in 1996 that we got to know of her horrible end."

Anjali's father, who used to dote on his child, has not forgiven himself. He silently mourns his daughter's loss even today.