For the first time in independent India, a woman to be hanged

Mathura, February 17, 2021: Shabnam and Salim’s bloody tale has come close to a hanging climax. On the night of April 14, 2008, the Mathura District Prison set up to hang Shabnam and her lover, who axed their family members including parents and innocent nephew.

The hanging rope will be brought from Buxar. The executioner from Meerut also came to inspect the execution site. However, the date of hanging has not been fixed.

Shabnam, a resident of Bawankhedi village in Amroha district of Uttar Pradesh, along with her lover Salim, on the night of April 14, 2008, slandered seven people, including parents and innocent nephews, to death with an axe. Shabnam has been sentenced to death for the same crime.

Shabnam’s mercy petition has also been rejected by the President. In such a situation, he is certain to be hanged. The system of hanging women is in the district jail. The court has not yet fixed the date for hanging Shabnam and Salim, but the jail administration has completed its preparations for hanging Shabnam and Salim.

On March 12, 2020, the jail administration summoned Pawan Kumar Jallad of Meerut to get the execution site inspected. The executioner had asked to arrange the towing, including the wooden salvage, the lever, the wooden planks and the flange.

Jail Superintendent Shailendra Maitreya said that the towing would be one inch in diameter. It will remain 24 feet long. The towing is being sourced from Buxar. The cost of both towing is 3600 rupees. He said that as soon as the date of the hanging of Shabnam and Salim is fixed, a trial will be held in the execution site of the jail. In this, a sack full of soil equal to the weight of Shabnam will be hung on the noose.

The jail was built in Mathura district in the year 1866 when a hanging house was built to hang women here. No woman has been hanged in this hanging house since the independence of India.

The family of teacher Shaukat Ali, living in Bawankhedi of village Hasanpur area from Amroha district, included wife Hashmi, son Anees, Rashid, daughter-in-law Anjum, daughter Shabnam and ten-month-old grandson Arsh. Shabnam, the only daughter, was pampered by father Shaukat Ali. After passing MA, she became a teacher. During this, Shabnam’s love affair started with the young man Salim. Both wanted to get married, but Shabnam Saifi was from the Pathan fraternity. So the family of Shabnam did not approve of this.

On the night of April 14, 2008, Shabnam called her lover Salim home. Earlier, he put the family to sleep by feeding them sleeping pills. That day Shabnam’s sister Rabia also came to her house. In the night, Shabnam and Salim put the sleeping father Shaukat, mother Hashmi, brother Anees, Rashid, sister-in-law Anjum, Fuferi sister Rabia and ten-month-old nephew Arsh to death. Salim had run away from the incident, but Shabnam stayed in the house overnight. In the early hours, she screamed that there had been an attack. Hearing the noise, the people of the village arrived at the spot. The dead bodies of all seven people, including the innocent, were strangled in three rooms. By the end of the day, the village Bawankhedi was all over the news. The then Chief Minister Mayawati also reached the village. Given the circumstances of the incident, Shabnam was suspected.

On the fourth day of the incident, the police took Shabnam and Salim into custody. Salim also recovered the axe used in the murder from the village pond. Both were also sentenced to death by the local court. The story of the gruesome love of Salim and Shabnam reached the gallows. Salim and Shabnam used to meet almost everyday. Shabnam was two months pregnant on the day the both of them committed this gruesome crime. Shabnam’s hands did not tremble while cutting the throat of her ten-month-old innocent nephew Arsh. Shabnam later gave birth to a son in prison. He was named Muhammad Taj.

10 intoxicating pills were found in the home. Then in the post-mortem report, all the dead were confirmed to be intoxicated. Along with this, he found a SIM in a box of tea leaves kept in the kitchen of the house. Both were detained by the police on the grounds that all members of the family had been drugged, with Shabnam not fainted and more than 50 calls being made to Salim.

Shabnam’s house is on the roadside in the village. Salim used to work opposite her house. That is where their love story began. Shabnam’s family was educated and prosperous. While Salim’s family counts in the middle class. After the Bawankhedi scandal, this village became infamous all over the country. After this incident, the people of the village have developed such hatred towards Shabman that they refuse to anoint the same name to another child.