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.