INDIA: MOTHER, DAUGHTER AWARDED DEATH SENTENCE FOR MURDER OF DOCTOR

at an ad hoc court in Pune, India, Additional Sessions Judge Vilas Patil sentenced a mother and daughter to death for kidnapping and murdering a doctor for a ransom of Rs 25 lakh. Mahajan, a city-based orthopaedic surgeon was murdered by Leena Devasthali, 52, a practicing lawyer at Nasik bar, and her 28 year old daughter Dipti, a medical student, in a lodge here on July 3, 2006 after he failed to pay them Rs 25 lakhs demanded by the women with a promise of making him head of the department in a fake hospital. When Mahajan refused to accede to their demand for money, the two women kidnapped him and Dipti pricked him with five 500 mg intravenous injection of a sedative. After he became unconscious, the parts of the victim's body were cut into pieces and packed in plastic bags by the assailants and dumped at different spots on the outskirts of the city.