First woman to be hanged till death after Independence - স্বাধীন ভারতে এই প্রথম কোনো মহিলার ফাঁসি বলবৎ হতে চলেছে মথুরা জেলে। বিস্তারিত প্রতিবেদনে।

Jayant, Editor@UBNTBT বৃহস্পতিবার, ফেব্রুয়ারী ১৮, ২০২১

First woman to be hanged till death after Independence.

স্বাধীন ভারতে এই প্রথম কোনো মহিলার ফাঁসি বলবৎ হতে চলেছে মথুরা জেলে। বিস্তারিত প্রতিবেদনে।

The Mathura district jail has started preparations to hang a woman for the first time in independent India. Shabnam Ali, 38, was convicted of killing seven members of her family — her mother, father, two brothers, sister-in-law, cousin and 10-month-old nephew — by serving them milk laced with sedatives and then slitting their throats.

Who is Shabnam Ali ?

Shabnam hails from Bawankheri, a village some 20km from Amroha in Moradabad division of Uttar Pradesh and is a double MA in English and Geography.

Before she murdered her family members, Ali worked as a school teacher who taught in the village school and was a favourite among her students.

Shabnam’s uncle, Sattar Ali, describes her as a demure girl, "every bit the obedient daughter" who nobody thought was capable of murdering her family for her lover.

Drugged family before killing

On the intervening night of April 14 and 15 2008, Shabnam, who was seven weeks pregnant with her lover Saleem's child, drugged her family and slaughtered them because they objected to her relationship.

Saleem came from a different socio-economic background and caste. Her family, Saifi Muslims, were well-to-do landholders, while Saleem, a Pathan, was a class VI dropout, and worked as a daily wager.

Shabnam, a school teacher was in a relationship with Saleem who used to work as a daily wager.

Shabnam's family owned around 30 bigha of land. Her father was an Arts teacher in the local college.

“All of us were shocked. There was some tension in the family due to her relationship with that man, but it was impossible to imagine that it would end that way,” said Sattar.

India's first female death row convict to be hanged

Shabnam and Saleem were sentenced to death in 2010 by the sessions court in Amroha in UP, where they are from.

Over the next 11 years, Shabnam went to the Allahabad high court, the Supreme Court, the President and then the Supreme Court (SC) again. In January last year, her review petition was dismissed by the SC.

However, she has not exhausted all judicial remedies.

as per TOI, that they have not been informed about a death warrant being issued in the one year since, at the Mathura district jail, the only one in the country where women can be hanged, preparations are afoot.

“We have not received any death warrant but have started preparing … Last year in February, the executioner, Pawan Jallad, had inspected the hanging house," said Mathura senior jail superintendent Shailendra Maitrey on Wednesday.

He said that there was a problem with the structure of the gallows. We are fixing that now. We have also just ordered two hanging ropes from Bihar’s Buxar central jail,”

Shabnam's uncle Sattar now occupies Shabnam's family house in Bawankheri village, Uttar Pradesh.

Built 150 years ago, the gallows in Mathura has never been used in independent India. The hanging house with creaking structures and covered in overgrowth would take a while to set in order should a death warrant be issued.

Shabnam is incarcerated in a Rampur Jail as Mathura jail begins preparation to hang her.

But legal experts said all of this is not definitive yet. “Shabnam could still seek another judicial review of the petition in SC. She could also file a curative petition,” SC lawyer Sarthak Chaturvedi told TOI. “No one can be hanged until all legal remedies are exhausted."

Other female death row convicts

Step-sisters Renuka Shinde and Seema Gavit have been on death row for kidnapping 13 children and killing at least five of them.

A woman from Lucknow, Ramshri, had been sentenced to death in 1998 but it was commuted to life imprisonment after she gave birth to a child in prison.

Shabnam's friend adopts her kid.

The boy, a few years earlier, was “adopted” by a Bulandshahr-based couple, journalist Usman Saifi and his wife Vandana.

“Shabnam and I studied in the same college. She was two years senior to me. We used to take the same bus to college. Once, I confided in her that I had no money to submit my fees. She helped me,” Usman said.

Usman Saifi and Vandana are foster parents to Shabnam's son.

Taking care of her child, he adds, is his way of repaying Shabnam.

“I was shocked when I read about the murders and that Shabnam had been arrested for them. Had it not been for her, I would have had to drop out of college. The least I can do is look after her child.”

Incidentally, Usman and Vandana are only foster parents of the boy and cannot adopt him legally because Islam doesn’t allow adoption.

Content Source: Times of India.