Information about her execution emerged during a Delhi High Court hearing on Monday following a plea filed by the victim’s father, Shabbir Khan.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — A 33-year-old woman Shahzadi Khan from Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district was executed in Abu Dhabi (UAE) after she was convicted for the murder of an infant. She was executed on 15 February, the Ministry of External Affairs informed the Delhi High Court on Monday.
Shahzadi, a caregiver in an Emirati family, had been in custody since 10 February 2023 before being convicted and sentenced to death on 31 July that year. She was held at Al Wathba prison, where she was executed last month.
Information about her execution emerged during a court hearing on Monday following a plea filed by the victim’s father, Shabbir Khan, who sought information about her legal status and well-being.
“It is over. She was executed on 15 February. Her last rites will be held on 5 March,” Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma informed the court. Justice Sachin Datta described the development as “very unfortunate”.
Shabbir, father of Shahzadi Khan, said he had struggled for clarity on his daughter’s fate, as he slammed the Union government for not taking enough initiative.
In his plea before the court, he stated: “The petitioner, with considerable effort, submitted an application dated February 21, 2025 to the Ministry of External Affairs, seeking to ascertain the current legal status of his daughter and confirm whether she remains alive or has been executed.”
“I tried a lot with the Indian government [to help reverse the judgment]. I had been running around since last year,” Shabbir told Press Trust of India. “We did not have the money to go there [Abu Dhabi]. The lawyers were expensive and the government did not support us. They hanged her on 15 February and there was no news from MEA. I had a number on which I called and the woman who spoke to me told me my daughter was no more,” he said.
Shabbir has now requested the government to arrange his travel to Abu Dhabi to attend his daughter’s last rites. Earlier, Shabbir said he received a phone call from “my beloved daughter” who told him that she had been informed about her impending execution.
“A captain visited me today, and I’ve been isolated. He told me I have no time left,” she said.
Shahzadi Khan was allegedly deceived by a fraudster and trafficked to Abu Dhabi in December 2021 before being implicated in the death of an infant, a crime she vehemently denied committing.
Family members argued that she was wrongly implicated in the case and the infant died of vaccination. The child died on 7 December 2022, hours after receiving a routine vaccination.
Shahzadi Khan’s legal team argued that she was pressured into a confession and was inadequately represented during her trial.
Earlier, her father had written to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and secure clemency for his daughter.
Shahzadi Khan’s lawyer, Ali Mohammad, criticised the judicial process, alleging that the execution amounted to an “extrajudicial killing under the guise of legal proceedings”. He said efforts to appeal the sentence were unsuccessful, with a final rejection in February 2024 despite extensive documentation challenging the conviction.
“We wrote to the Indian Embassy, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of External Affairs, urging them to take the matter forward. But what happened in the end, we cannot say,” he told India Today.
“We approached the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of External Affairs again on February 21, but no information was provided. After two to three days, we filed a writ petition in court, and today, we received official confirmation that she had been executed. Her last rites will be performed in Abu Dhabi on 5 March,” he said.
