President rejects mercy plea of Shabnam, SC uphelds death sentence

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the mercy plea of Shabnam, a teacher from Amroha district who, along with her lover, was convicted for murdering all other family members in the year 2008. Shabnam’s death sentence had been upheld by the Supreme Court in may last.

The lady is lodged in Moradabad district jail. The jail superintendent B R Verma said, “We have not received any official intimation about rejection of the plea.” Verma stated that the jail administration had received a letter two days ago from Shabnam’s lawyer Himanshu Agarwal. “The letter stated that President Mukherjee has rejected Shabnam’s mercy petition,” said the jail superintendent.

Verma said that the letter requested that since the review petition in the murder case is pending in the Supreme Court, the death sentence should not be executed.

The case:

• Shabnam was a teacher in a primary school in a village in Amroha district.
• She had killed all the eight members of her family, including her 10-month old nephew following opposition to her relationship with her lover Saleem.
• Shabnam and Saleem had been arrested on April 19, 2008 (four days after the crime took place.)
• Both, Shabnam and Saleem, were awarded death sentences.
• While the lady was lodged in Moradabad district jail, Saleem was serving in Central Jail, Bareilly.

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What Shabnam pleaded:

• Shabnam had sent two separate mercy petitions—one to the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee and another to then then Governor of Uttar Pradesh, Ram Naik—in June 2015.
• In the mercy petitions, she claimed innocence and alleged that her family members were murdered over a property dispute, said the jail superintendent Verma.
• The Uttar Pradesh governor had rejected her petition in September last year.
• The district jail superintendent said that Shabnam had sought pardon on the ground that she had responsibilities towards her son Taj. (He was born in Moradabad jail and was handed over to Shabnam’s friend Usman Shaifi, for foster care, in August 2015 as the jail manual mandates that women inmates cannot keep children after they turn six.)

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Saleem’s mercy petition still pending:

• Shabnam’s lover Saleem had also sent a mercy petition to the President Mukherjee on the ground that he was innocent.
• “The petition is still pending,” stated a jail official.