Indian woman, 33, quietly executed in Abu Dhabi for infant’s murder

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An Indian woman sentenced to death in Abu Dhabi in the murder of a four-month-old child was executed on 15 February, weeks before her family and the Indian embassy was officially informed, the Delhi High Court was told on Monday.

Shahzadi Khan, 33, 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.

The revelation about her execution came during a court hearing on Monday following a plea filed by Khan’s father, Shabbir Khan, who had 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”.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed that the Indian embassy had provided legal support, including submitting mercy petitions and pardon requests to the UAE government. However, the country’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, upheld the death sentence, and UAE authorities officially notified the Indian embassy of the execution on 28 February.

Mr Khan, a resident of Banda district in Uttar Pradesh, said he had struggled for clarity on his daughter’s fate, as he lashed out at the Indian 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,” Mr Khan told the 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.

He has now requested the government to arrange his travel to Abu Dhabi to attend his daughter’s last rites. Earlier on 14 February, Mr Khan said, he received a “phone call from my beloved daughter who while crying on phone told me she has been informed about her execution”.

“A captain visited me today, and I’ve been isolated. He told me I have no time left,” she said.

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.

The child, Mr Khan claims, died on 7 December 2022, hours after receiving routine vaccinations. Her legal team argued that she had been pressured into a confession and was inadequately represented during her trial, as Khan’s family maintained her innocence.

According to Abu Dhabi court submissions seen by The Independent, Khan asphyxiated the infant on the “spur of the moment”. She was angry with her employers over “mistreatment and nondelivery of salaries”, the court was told during the trial, and she took out her frustration on their child.

Earlier, her father told The Independent, he had written president Droupadi Murmu and prime minister Narendra Modi to intervene and secure clemency for his daughter.

Her lawyer, Ali Mohammad, criticised the judicial process, alleging that Khan’s 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 has been executed. Her last rites will be performed in Abu Dhabi on 5 March," he said.