UP woman Shahzadi Khan, 33, executed in UAE for 4-month-old’s murder | India News – The Times of India

NEW DELHI: An Indian woman on death row in Abu Dhabi for the alleged murder of a four-month-old infant was executed on February 15, the Centre informed Shahzadi Khan’s horrified family in Delhi high court on Monday.
Indian embassy was informed about execution only on Feb 28. “It is over. She was executed on Feb 15. Her last rites will be held on March 5,” a senior law officer representing Centre told Justice Sachin Datta.
HC was hearing the woman’s father’s plea seeking the MEA’s intervention to find out about her well-being. “It is very unfortunate,” the court said, even as additional SG Chetan Sharma assured the court that embassy officials & the petitioner were in touch and arrangements were being made so the family could attend daughter’s last rites in UAE.

We did our best to save Shahzadi. We hired a law firm there to represent her in court. But the laws there treat the death of an infant severely, additional SG Chetan Sharma said. MEA said Shahzadi Khan, 33, was convicted and sentenced to death for murder of an infant and Indian embassy was informed about the execution only on Feb 28. Govt sources had said on Feb 17 that a review petition had been filed and the matter was still under a consideration.
“The embassy provided all possible legal assistance to Shahzadi, including sending mercy petitions and pardon requests to the govt of UAE. UAE authorities intimated the embassy on Feb 28 that the sentence of Shahzadi has been carried out in accordance with local laws. Family of Shahzadi has been informed of the matter,” the ministry said, adding the highest court of UAE, the court of Cassation, had upheld the sentence.
Her father, Shabbir Khan, a resident of UP’s Banda, had approached court saying there was “profound uncertainty” over his daughter’s situation and his repeated applications to MEA for clarification were fruitless.
The father’s plea claimed that Shahzadi was inadequately represented before the local courts and she was pressured into confessing, leading to imposition of death penalty. The father alleged that the infant’s parents had refused consent for a postmortem and also signed an agreement to waive further investigation into the death, but still his daughter was arraigned & held guilty.