Explainer: Shabnam death row case, may be the first women to be hanged in independent India

In 2010, Shabnam and her lover Saleem were convicted of killing seven members of the former's family in 2008. Among those 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.

The family was against Shabnam's relationship with Saleem because of the differences in their socio-economic class. While Shabnam was a double MA, Saleem was a class 6 dropout. Shabnam, then 24, was a teacher in a government school.

A court in Amroha district had handed the death penalty to both convicts and the verdict was upheld by the Allahabad High Court in 2013. Two years later, the Supreme Court, too, upheld the death penalty.

In January 2020, the top court once again rejected their review petitions, underlining that Saleem had "meticulously executed the killing after Shabnam administered sleeping pills in tea".

Pawan Kumar, also known as Pawan Jallad, the man who carried out the hangings in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case, said he had visited the UP jail last year and suggested repairs that the gallows needed.

However, a senior superintendent of the district jail told Hindustan Times that even though an order for fresh ropes was placed the preparations at the jail were nothing more than “routine maintenance”.

Over 750 men have been sent to the gallows, as per the data of Delhi’s National Law University. Eight of these men were hanged in the last two decades. The same report reveals that 12 women, including Shabnam, faced the death penalty and all come from "backward classes and religious minorities".