Remember the sensational 2008 Amroha murder case, where a 25-year-old woman Shabnam Ali killed 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..?
The Mathura Jail administration has now started preparations to hang Shabnam making the first woman independent India to be hanged to death. 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.
With the news all around the social media, the spotlight again fell on who Shabnam is and what she did to get convicted along with another man called Saleem..?
The case set ripples in the country with the woman, Shabnam Ali along with her partner Saleem were sentenced to death in 2010 by the sessions court in Amroha in UP, where they are from. Into the details, it all started with Shabnam Ali who used to work as a school teacher in Bawankheri, a village some 20km from Amroha in UP falling in love with Saleem against the former’s family will.
Holding grudge against her family who opposed their marriage stating different socio-economic backgrounds and caste as reason, Shabnam drugged her family and slaughtered them. In a shock to everyone, was seven weeks pregnant with Saleem’s child when she was convicted and delivered a baby in December 2008.
The boy was adopted by Bulandshahr-based couple, journalist Usman Saifi and his wife Vandana who is the friend of Shabnam. The District and Sessions Court sentenced the duo to death on July 14, 2010. Over the next 11 years, Shabnam went to the Allahabad high court, the President and twice appealed to the Supreme Court.
