Shabman of Uttar Pradesh will be the first woman to be hung for her crimes in independent India. The woman was sentenced to death for her actions, but her appeal is still pending. Since India’s independence, the female hanging house Mathura Jail, which was established more than a century ago, has not been used. Shabman, on the other hand, is most likely to be the first woman to be hanged here.The hanging date has not yet been set, but the Jail Superintendent stated that the necessary procedures have been made and that the rope to hang the inmate has been ordered.
Who is Shabnam Ali ?
Shabnam Ali is a Saifi Muslim from Bawankheri, a village on the borders of Amroha. She has a double MA in English and Geography and worked as a teacher in the village school before being convicted in 2008 with the murders of seven members of her family.
Shabnam and her lover Saleem were found guilty in 2008 of murdering seven members of her family: father Shaukat Ali (55), mother Hashmi (50), elder brother Anees (35), Anees’ wife Anjum (25), younger brother Rashid (22), cousin Rabia (14), and Arsh, Anees’ 10-month-old kid.
Shabnam sedated six of her family members on the intervening night of April 14-15, according to the prosecution case –– everyone but Arsh, the infant. Shabnam grabbed them by their hair as Saleem hacked off their heads with an axe. Her ten-month-old nephew was throttled. Shabnam would have been the lone heir to the estate if her family had all died.
Shabnam and Saleem were both in their 20s when they were apprehended five days after the incident, and Shabnam was seven weeks pregnant. She gave birth to her son in December of that year.
They were sentenced to death by an Amroha sessions court in 2010, which was affirmed by the Allahabad High Court in 2013 and the Supreme Court in May 2015. The death warrants were stayed by the Apex Court within ten days.
Shabnam’s claims throughout the trial
The pair began to turn against one another during the trial. Shabnam claimed she had reported her family’s murder to the authorities. Unknown intruders had allegedly barged into her home and murdered her family, according to her original account.
Shabnam said in a 2015 statement that Saleem had invaded her home with a knife and killed all of her family members while she was sleeping. Saleem, on the other side, admitted to just entering the house at Shabnam’s request, and that after he arrived, she confessed to murdering her family.
Shabnam’s compassion request was turned down by Ram Naik, the governor of Uttar Pradesh at the time. Her mercy petition was likewise denied by then-President Pranab Mukherjee in August 2016.
The death sentence was affirmed by a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde in January 2020.Her legal options have not yet been explored.
Shabnam will be hung in the jail in Mathura.
Despite the fact that Shabnam has not yet been served with a death warrant, media reports claim that preparations are being made at the Mathura jail to put her to death. The construction of the gallows is being fixed, and two hanging ropes have been ordered from Bihar’s Buxar central jail, as the women’s hanging house has not been utilised since India’s independence.
Shabnam is currently imprisoned in Rampur.
Other Indian women on death row
According to a 2016 research on the death penalty in India published by National Law University, there are 12 women on death row in India. The President has previously rejected the mercy appeals of step-sisters Renuka Shinde and Seema Mohan Gavit. Between 1990 and 1996, the sisters were accused of kidnapping and killing multiple children in Maharashtra.
Ramshri, another inmate, was condemned to death in 1998, but after giving birth to a child while in prison, her death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
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