The Supreme Court stayed the death sentences of a girl and her boyfriend who had killed seven members of her family, including a 10-month-old baby, for opposing their marriage. The stay followed a plea by the lawyer for Shabnam and Saleem that they be allowed to file a review petition. The Uttar Pradesh couple's death warrants were issued last week, after the apex court upheld their sentences earlier this month saying their crime fell in the "rarest of rare" category that warranted capital punishment. The matter will be heard further on Wednesday. Shabnam and Saleem had given sedatives to her parents and four other family members and then hacked them to death with an axe in 2008 in Moradabad district. The seventh victim, 10-month Arsh, was strangulated to death by the two. Today, the apex court bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and U.U. Lalit, while staying the sentences, sought the response of the Uttar Pradesh government on the review plea. Upholding the death penalty on May 4, a three-judge apex court bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices S.A. Bobde and Arun Mishra had dismissed the plea of amicus curiae (friend of court) Dushayant Parashar to commute the couple's sentence to life imprisonment. Parashar's plea was that Shabnam had delivered a child while in prison and he would be orphaned if the mother was executed. But the court held that the crime warranted the death penalty. Among those killed were Shabnam's parents, brothers and sisters-in-law. Toddler Arsh, who was strangulated, was Shabnam's nephew. She was 22 then and Saleem 24.
