Indian nurse Nimisha Priya is currently being talked about in the entire country. Nimisha has been sentenced to death in Yemen. He is to be hanged on July 16, but continuous efforts are being made to stop this hanging.
Nimisha has been sentenced to death in the murder case of a Yemeni man and his former business partner Talal Abdo Mahdi.
You all know the story of Nimisha Priya, but today we will talk about the woman who was the first to be sentenced to death in India. A woman was crucified in India exactly 70 years ago. The name of this woman is Ratan Bai Jain. Ratan Bai Jain was hanged in the year 1955. Ratan is not only the first woman to be hanged in India but till date she is the only woman to be hanged in independent India.
According to a 2012 report by the National Crime Records Bureau, there are 414 criminals awaiting death sentence in India. Of these, 13 are women. Although India is one of the few countries that still carries out the death penalty, no woman has been hanged in India since 1955. In 1955, Ratan Bai Jain became the first and only woman to be hanged.
What was the crime?
The criminal Ratan Bai Jain was a resident of Delhi. After hearing the name of death sentence, everyone would want to know the answer to the question, what was Ratan’s crime? What serious crime had he committed that he was directly hanged? Actually, Ratan had killed three girls. At the age of 35, Ratan was crucified for this crime.
Ratan worked as a manager in the Family Planning (Sterility Clinic) clinic. She and the three girls whose lives Ratan had killed were also present in the clinic. One day Ratan suddenly suspected that these girls were having an affair with her husband. Ratan’s suspicion increased to such an extent that he even decided to kill the three girls.
How to kill?
Due to this suspicion, Ratan killed all three girls. Ratan neither stabbed the girls nor killed them by slitting their throats, but he used poison to commit this crime. Ratan allegedly mixed poison in the girls’ food or drinks. This poison was so dangerous that all three girls died instantly.
When was he hanged?
You must have seen the film Jawan, in this film Deepika Padukone is given death sentence. A similar original picture was also seen in Tihar Jail on January 3. Ratan was found guilty in this murder case. He was sentenced to death for this crime. The year 1955, date 3 January, is the date in the history of India when the first female criminal was given death sentence. After the Delhi Sessions Court upheld Ratan’s death sentence, the Punjab High Court also upheld his death sentence.
The morning of January 3 must have brought light for everyone, but for Ratan this morning brought darkness after which there was never any light in his life. It is not that after Ratan, women were not sentenced to death, but in the cases of many women, they were not hanged but instead of death sentence, they were given life imprisonment.
Many women were sentenced to death
One such case is that of Seema Gavit and Renuka Shinde. These two sisters together had kidnapped 13 children. Besides, 5 of these children were also murdered. These women were sentenced to death by the Kolapur Sessions Court and later by the Bombay High Court. The women filed mercy appeals several times to avoid this punishment, but former President Pranab Mukherjee also rejected their mercy appeal in 2014.
After their mercy petitions were rejected by then President Pranab Mukherjee, the Gavit sisters had approached the Bombay High Court citing inordinate delay in the decision on their petitions. After this he got relief in the year 2022. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
Shabnam’s bloody love story
A woman named Shabnam has also been sentenced to death. In the year 2008, Shabnam and Salim- Amroha murder case came to light. In Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, two lovers named Shabnam and Salim sacrificed their family for the sake of their love.
Together they took the lives of 7 members of the family, which included a 10-month-old child. After the case came to light, the Amroha Sessions Court sentenced him to death in 2010, this decision was upheld by the Allahabad High Court in 2013 and the Supreme Court in May 2015. After this, both Shabnam and Salim are awaiting death sentence for this crime. Both are currently in jail. However, it has not yet been revealed when he will be hanged. This case has been pending for a long time, but the Supreme Court has upheld his sentence.
Long debate on death sentence
There is a long debate about capital punishment. Death penalty is not given in many countries. This is a punishment where once a person is punished, he dies and later in the case it is revealed that he was innocent, then there is no way to reverse the person’s sentence and bring him back.
Due to this, the Supreme Court believes that any method of punishment related to the fundamental right to life should be fair and appropriate. Therefore, the Supreme Court came to the conclusion that as per Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, all death row cases require a limited oral hearing at the reconsideration stage. For this reason, the right to file a review petition is an important privilege given to persons sentenced to death.