Uttar Pradesh’s Shabnam, who was convicted along with her lover Salim in the Amroha murder case, will be the first Indian woman who will be hanged to death after India’s independence.
The Mathura Jail administration has already started preparations to hang this Uttar Pradesh resident. In April 2008, Shabnam, brutally murdered seven of her family members with an axe, with the help of her lover.
Her mercy petition has already been rejected by the Governor and President and is likely to be hanged soon after a death warrant is issued. Shabnam is presently lodged in Rampur district jail while Salim is lodged in Agra prison.
The first female hanging house was built in Mathura jail almost 150 years ago, but no woman has been hanged since Independence. Senior Jail Superintendent Shailendra Kumar Maitreya said that the date of hanging is not fixed yet. Shabnam will be hanged as soon as the death warrant is issued.
Meerut’s hangman Pawan Jallad, who also carried out the execution of the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case convicts, has been asked to put Shabnam to the gallows. The hangman has already inspected Uttar Pradesh’s only female execution centre situated in Mathura. The rope is being brought for hanging from Buxar.
Shabnam and Salim were found guilty of killing her parents, two brothers and their wives and her 10-month-old nephew in Bawankhedi village of Amroha district on April 14, 2008 since her family was opposed to their relationship.
The reaction to the multiple murders was so strong that people who had named their daughters as Shabnam, changed their names almost overnight. She was arrested on April 19, 2008, five days after the sensational murders, along with her lover Salim. She was seven weeks pregnant when she was arrested. She delivered a baby in December 2008.
She has a double MA (English and Geography) and taught at the village primary school. Salim is a Class VI dropout who worked at a wood sawing unit outside Shabnam’s home. During the investigation, it was found that Shabnam had abetted Saleem in the crime as she made her family members drink milk laced with sedatives before hacking them to death. She didn’t even spare her little nephew who was strangulated to death. On the day of judgment, the court heard the statements of as many as 29 witnesses.
