Amroha Murders Case: Love To Betrayal — The Haunting Tale Of Shabnam And Saleem

A brutal murder case that sent shockwaves across the nation involved a girl Shabnam, who was convicted along with her lover Saleem for killing all her family members.

The accused was Shabnam, then a young 24-year-old, who executed the murderous plan with lover Saleem. Both are currently on the death row.

Source : File Photo

On the night of April 14, 2008, a terrifying incident shook Bawankhedi, a village in Amroha’s Hasanpur tehsil. An entire family of seven, including a 10-month-old, was murdered in sleep by one of their own. The accused was Shabnam, then a young 24-year-old, who executed the murderous plan with lover Saleem. Both are currently on the death row. The seven persons who they killed were Shabnam's father Shaukat Ali (55), mother Hashmi (50), elder brother Anees (35), Anees’s wife Anjum (25), younger brother Rashid (22), cousin Rabia (14), and Arsh, Anees’s 10-month-old son.     

According to media reports, the couple decided to commit this heinous crime after Shabnam’s family disapproved of the relationship because she belonged to the Saifi Muslim community while Saleem was a Pathan. The star-crossed lovers were convicted of the murders in 2010, with the Amroha sessions court ordering death penalty for them. The Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court later upheld the verdict. Former President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected her mercy plea in 2016. 

If executed, Shabnam will be the first woman to be hanged for a crime in independent India. Shabnam was a double MA, and taught at a village primary school. She was engaged in a love affair with Saleem, who was a Class VI dropout and worked at a wood sawing unit outside Shabnam’s home.

The Murders

The calm of the 2008 summer night in Bawankheri was shattered by the cries of a young woman from Shaukat Ali's house, desperately seeking help. When the locals reached the spot, a horrifying scene greeted them — seven members of the family were lying dead, all of them brutally murdered. Only one of the eight members who lived in the expansive house spread over nine acres was alive — Shabnam.

According to what Shabnam told the people, as reported by the media, she was asleep on the terrace. She reportedly claimed that when she woke up, she saw her family had been attacked, their necks axed by "dacoits".

‘Inside Job’: How Police Cracked The Case

Then Amroha SHO RP Gupta was the investigating officer in the case. He had suspected it to be an “an inside job” from the beginning, Gupta was quoted by ThePrint in a 2021 report. “I remember walking into the crime scene, and the first thing I noticed was that none of the bedsheets were crumpled. There seemed to be no sign of struggle from the victims,” he said.  

Gupta said he was sure the family had been drugged, and the autopsy report proved him right as it found traces of the tranquiliser, Biopose, in all the victims except Arsh. 

The police also recovered blood-stained clothes from Shabnam, the report said. “We also found out that there had been 52 calls between Shabnam and Saleem on the night of the murders,” Gupta was quoted as saying. He also said Saleem “himself recovered the axe he had thrown away after the murders and handed it over” to him. 

During interrogation, the couple told the police that Shabnam and Saleem wanted to get married but the family was against their match since they belonged to different Muslim communities. Instead of eloping, they hatched the plan to kill the family because they did not want to let go of the huge property, several media reports said. The two drugged the family members, and then killed them one after another once they were unconscious.

The Couple’s Arrest And Trial

Shabnam and Saleem were arrested five days after the crime. She was seven weeks pregnant at the time. She gave birth to a baby boy in the jail. The boy lived with her until the age of seven, after which he was allowed to live with Usman Saifi, a journalist and acquaintance of Shabnam, and his wife.

In 2010, Shabnam and Saleem were sentenced to death by an Amroha court. Later, the decision was upheld by the Allahabad High Court in 2013, and the Supreme Court in May 2015. 

Shabnam and Saleem were to be executed in UP’s Mathura jail. However, the Amroha court ordered a stay on the death warrant as a decision on Shabnam's second mercy petition is pending. Her son has also urged the President of India to commute her death sentence.

When Shabnam had initially claimed that unknown assailants had entered her home and killed everyone, the lovers turned against each other during the trial. According to the 2015 Supreme Court judgment, in her Section 313 statement, Shabnam said Saleem had entered the house through the roof, carrying a knife, and killed all her family members while she was asleep. Saleem, however, said he reached the house “only on the request of Shabnam”, and that when he reached there she told her that she had killed the others, as reported by The Indian Express.

Seven years after the horrific crime, when her son was being sent to foster care, Shabnam claimed she feared for his life, saying the “people who had killed her family over a property dispute could harm him too", the IE report said.

Mercy Petitions And Other Legal Options

Shabnam’s mercy petition was rejected in September 2015 by then-UP Governor Ram Naik. She had sought it on the grounds of her responsibilities towards her son. Next year, in August, then President Pranab Mukherjee rejected her mercy plea. A Supreme Court bench led by then CJI SA Bobde upheld the death penalty in January 2020.

In February 2021, Shabnam filed a second mercy petition with UP Governor Anandiben Patel, and the then President Ram Nath Kovind.

Shabnam’s lawyer Shreya Rastogi had said in a statement: “Shabnam has very important constitutional remedies that remain to be exercised. These include the right to challenge the rejection of her mercy petition before the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court on various grounds and also the right to file a curative petition in the Supreme Court against the decision on the review petition.” 

The curative petition challenged the apex court decision of January 2020, which upheld her death sentence. Also, if more than one convict are sentenced to death in the same case, they must be executed together, according to law. Hence, Shabnam and Saleem can be hanged only after they have exhausted all their legal options.

Shabnam has been lodged in Rampur district jail since July 2019, where she was sent from the Moradabad prison. Saleem is lodged in Naini jail in Prayagraj.

Shabnam's Son Wants Her Death Sentence Commuted

In 2021, Shabnam’s 13-year-old son appealed to then President Ram Nath Kovind to commute her death sentence. "I love my mother. I am making an appeal to the President that her death sentence be commuted," he told reporters, holding up a slate, with "forgiveness" written on it.

"It is up to the President to forgive her. But I have faith," he said. The boy has been living with his custodian parent, Usman Saifi, in Bulandshahr.

In February 2021, after Shabnam filed a fresh mercy petition, the Amroha district court put a hold on its decision on an application filed by the Rampur jail administration that had sought a death warrant against Shabnam after the top court rejected her review petition in January 2020.

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