News Analysis India

Tag: familicide

  • Day after clemency plea to President, death row convict Shabnam appeals to UP Governor for mercy

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: The murder convict Shabnam, who is facing gallows for hacking seven members of her family to death in 2008, has petitioned UP Governor Anandi Ben Patel for mercy. 

    Notably, Shabnam’s mercy petition was rejected in 2015 by the then President of India Pranab Mukherjeee. On Thursday, Shabnam’s 12-year-old son Taj had urged President Ram Nath Kovind to forgive her.

    As per the sources, two lawyers of Shabnam had met her on Thursday in Rampur Jail. They suggested her to file a fresh mercy petition. Initially, Shabnam was hesitant in moving the plea for mercy and had refused. But the lawyers convinced her to move the appeal to the UP Governor urging her to consider it by virtue of being a woman herself, said the sources.

    ALSO READ | Death row convict Shabnam’s son appeals to President Kovind for clemency

    Rampur Jail Superintendent PD Salonia confirmed that Shabnam’s lawyers had handed over a fresh mercy petition to be sent to the Governor. In fact, Article 161 of the Constitution empowers the Governors of States to grant pardon convicts facing death row.

    Shabnam, a native of Amroha district in western UP, had hacked his family members to death in connivance with her lover Salim, a labourer, in 2008. A postgraduate herself, Shabnam was two-months pregnant at that time. She moved to eliminate seven members of her family, including her mother, father, even a 10-month-old nephew, as they were opposed to her relationship with Salim.

    She was tried and awarded death by the sessions court of Amroha in 2010 against which she went to High Court which upheld the sentence. Then she moved the Supreme Court, but in vain. Later, Shabnam approached the President with a mercy appeal which was also rejected.

    Shabnam could be the first woman to be hanged in Independent India. However, no death warrant has yet been issued and the execution date is yet to be fixed.

    Shabnam is likely to be executed at the single female hanging house built in Mathura jail being renovated for the final act.

    Pawan Jallad of Meerut, who had executed the convicts of Nirbhaya’s gang rape and murder case, is likely to execute Shabnam’s death sentence.

  • UP convict, who axed 7 kin to death, may become first woman to be hanged post Independence

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: In a first in the history of independent India, a woman, convicted for axing seven members of her family to death, will be hanged at Mathura jail. 

    The date of execution, however, is yet to be fixed as no death warrant has been issued so far.

    Shabnam, a native of Amroha district in western UP, was convicted for murdering seven members of her family in connivance with her paramour Salim. She was tried and awarded death by all the courts. Even Supreme Court upheld her punishment and the President of India rejected her mercy petition. 

    Shabnam will be hanged at the single female hanging house built in Mathura jail.

    Preparations are already on for the final act. Pawan Jallad of Meerut, who had executed the convicts of Nirbhaya’s gang rape and brutal murder case, has reportedly made several visits to the hanging house in Mathura jail and suggested some modifications.

    On April 14, 2008, Shabnam, the daughter of Shaukat Ali, a teacher from Bawankheda village under Hasanpur police station areas of Amroha district, had brutally murdered seven of her family members including her father, mother, and even a 10-month old nephew. She along with her paramour Salim first served the entire family food laced with sedatives and when everyone fell unconscious, she axed them to death.

    Shabnam, a postgraduate in geography and English, fell for Salim, an illiterate labourer. Her family was dead against her relationship with Salim and their objection culminated in the massacre of seven of them.

    Both Shabnam and Salim were arrested by the district police. Salim admitted to his role in the massacre. Later, Salim led the police to recover the axe used in the criminal act. 

    As the authorities proceed with the process of hanging, Shabnam will have the distinction of being the first female prisoner to be hanged after Independence in the country.

    The first female hanging house was built in Mathura jail almost 150 years ago, but no woman has been executed there since Independence. As per the sources, a woman from Lucknow called Ramshri was sentenced to death earlier on April 6, 1998.

    But her death sentence was commuted into life imprisonment at the last moment after she gave birth to a child inside the jail.

    Mathura jail superintendent Shailendra Kumar Maitreya said that the date of hanging was not fixed yet, but preparations had already started for the procedure. Shabnam would be hanged as soon as the death warrant was issued, he said.

    Maitreya confirmed that the execution would be done by Pawan Jallad who had repaired the latch in the hanging house during one of his visits. Other modifications as per the requirement of the executioner, were also been carried out. The hanging rope was being brought from the Buxar district of Bihar, he added.