For the first time ever, a woman will be hanged to death in independent India. This has come as President Ram Nath Kovind turned down the mercy petition of Shabnam, who has been accused of killing seven members of her family along with her lover Salim.
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The Allahabad High Court and the sessions’ court had earlier convicted and awarded death sentence to the duo for the multiple murders. Shabnam filed a mercy petition before the President as the Supreme Court too upheld the verdict.Â
Earlier on April 15, 2008, Shabnam and her lover killed the entire family in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha district. This as they were having an affair and wanted to get married but Shabnam’s family was opposed to the marriage.
Shabnam made her family members drink milk laced with sedatives before killing them along with her lover. Seven members of the family were then axed to death.
Meanwhile, Shabnam’s uncle expressed his delight with the verdict. Her uncle while recalling the horror said “there was blood all around and the bodies were cut up”, adding the “crime was unpardonable”. Extremely dismayed with the ghastly crime, he said that he would not accept Shabnam’s body even after she is hanged to death.
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Shabnam and her lover will be hanged in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura Jail, which houses India’s lone female execution room.
Pawan Jallad, who had executed in March last year the four accused in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case, will be executing the duo. Though the hanging date has not been fixed yet, Pawan said “he is ready for the job”.
