Amroha Murder Case – Forensics Blog

It was a weird love story tainted by lust and greed that resulted in the massacre of an entire family—with seven people brutally killed, including a 10-month-old baby.

The Amroha Massacre, Shabnam and Saleem, explores the 2008 crime that took place in Bawankheri village, located in the Amroha district of Uttar Pradesh.

On a quiet summer morning in 2008, the village of Bawankheri in Amroha district was jolted awake by the desperate screams of a young woman pleading for help. Shabnam, the daughter of Shaukat Ali, ran frantically from house to house as her entire family had been slaughtered. The horrific scene that greeted those who rushed to her aid left them in shock—seven members of the household, including a ten-month-old baby, were brutally hacked to death.

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Shabnam, a member of the Saifi Muslim community, initially alleged that unidentified attackers had broken into her home and murdered her entire family. However, under police interrogation, she failed to provide a convincing explanation of how she had managed to escape the killers. Eventually, she confessed to drugging her family by giving them milk laced with sedatives before carrying out the murders with her lover.

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Salim brutally hacked the victims with an axe while Shabnam held them by their hair. She also strangled her 10-month-old nephew. With her entire family wiped out, Shabnam would have inherited their house and property. Five days after the crime, both Shabnam and Salim were arrested. At the time, they were in their 20s, and Shabnam was seven weeks pregnant, as reported by IANS. She later gave birth to a son in 2008. Shabnam, a postgraduate in English and geography, had worked as a Shiksha Mitra (government school teacher). Her family strongly opposed her relationship with Salim, a Class 4 dropout who worked at a wood sawing unit near their home and came from the Pathan community.

1st woman in independent India to be hanged

If Shabnam is executed, she will become the first woman in independent India to be hanged for a crime. However, legal experts emphasise that she still has several legal options available. Shabnam’s lawyer, Advocate Shreya Rastogi, stated that Shabnam has significant constitutional remedies left to pursue. These include the right to challenge the rejection of her mercy petition in the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court on various grounds, as well as the right to file a curative petition in the Supreme Court against the decision on her review petition. Additionally, under Indian law, when multiple people are sentenced to death in the same case, they must be executed together. This means Shabnam and Salim can only be hanged after both have exhausted all their legal options. Shabnam’s uncle and aunt have expressed happiness at the court verdict.

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“We were not at home when the carnage took place. When we went there in the morning, there was blood all around, and the bodies were cut up. The crime was unpardonable,” said her uncle. He said that he would not accept the body of Shabnam after her hanging.

The Couple’s Arrest and Trial

Shabnam and Saleem were arrested five days after the crime, with Shabnam being seven weeks pregnant at the time. She gave birth to a baby boy while in jail, and the child lived with her until he turned seven. Afterwards, he was placed in the care of Usman Saifi, a journalist and an acquaintance of Shabnam, along with his wife. In 2010, an Amroha court sentenced both Shabnam and Saleem to death. The verdict was later upheld by the Allahabad High Court in 2013 and confirmed by the Supreme Court in May 2015. Shabnam and Saleem were scheduled to be executed in Mathura jail, Uttar Pradesh. However, the Amroha court stayed the death warrant, as a decision on Shabnam’s second mercy petition is still pending. Her son has also appealed to the President of India to commute her death sentence.

Initially, Shabnam claimed that unknown assailants had killed her family, but during the trial, the lovers turned on each other. According to the 2015 Supreme Court judgement, in her Section 313 statement, Shabnam alleged that Saleem had entered the house through the roof, armed with a knife, and murdered her entire family while she was asleep. Saleem, on the other hand, claimed he went to the house only at Shabnam’s request and that when he arrived, she told him she had already killed the others. Seven years after the horrific crime, when her son was being placed in foster care, Shabnam expressed fear for his safety. She claimed that the “people who had killed her family over a property dispute might also try to harm him.”

Reference

1. ^ Vishnu, Uma (2015-06-07). “Shabnam & Saleem: The relationship that claimed seven lives of a family”. The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 2015-06-09. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
2. ^ “Amroha killings: Finality of death penalty important, says SC”. Tribune India. 23 January 2021. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
3. ^ Sachdev, Geetika (20 February 2021). “Shabnam Ali: The First Woman To Be Hanged In Independent India”. in.makers.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on 2021-02-20. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
4. ^ “Shabnam, First woman to be hanged after India’s Independence: Know More”. Pragativadi. 2021-02-18. Retrieved 2021-02-18.

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Written by Shubhra Shree Gajbhiye, Research Scholar, Department of Forensic Science, Guru Ghasidas University.