New Delhi, 3 MARCH

An Indian woman on death row in Abu Dhabi for the alleged murder of a four-month-old child has already been executed on February 15, the Delhi High Court hearing her father's plea about her well-being was informed on Monday.

Shahzadi Khan was handed over to the Abu Dhabi police on February 10, 2023, and she was sentenced to death on July 31, 2023. She was lodged in the Al Wathba jail.

On being informed about the development, Justice Sachin Datta termed it "very unfortunate".

"It is over. She was executed on February 15. Her last rites will be held on March 5," Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma told the court and stressed that the government had tried its best to assist her.

The submission was made during the hearing of the petition filed by the 33-year-old woman's father seeking to know her well-being.

The Ministry of External Affairs, meanwhile, said on Monday that the Indian Embassy provided all possible legal assistance to Shahzadi, including sending mercy petitions and pardon requests to the Government of the UAE.

Shahzadi was convicted on charges of murder of an infant and sentenced to death in the UAE. The highest court of the UAE, the Court of Cassation, upheld the sentence, it said.

The UAE authorities intimated to the Embassy on February 28, 2025, that the sentence of Shahzadi has been carried out in accordance with local laws. The family of Shahzadi has been informed of the matter, the MEA said.

Her father Shabbir Khan, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Banda, had said there was "profound uncertainty" regarding his daughter's situation and his repeated applications to the Ministry of External Affairs for clarification were fruitless.

The plea further alleged that Shahzadi was inadequately represented before the local courts in the case over the alleged murder of her employer's four-month-old child and she was pressured into confessing, leading to the imposition of the death penalty on her.

During the hearing, the petitioner's counsel said his limited prayer was to know whether his daughter was alive or she had been hanged.

He said on February 14, Shahzadi had called the family from the prison saying that she would be executed in a day or two and this would be her last call. Since then, they were unaware of her well-being, he said.

The Centre's counsel told the court that the Embassy officials and the petitioner were in touch and arrangements were being made so that the family could attend their daughter's last rites in Abu Dhabi.

"We did our best. We hired a law firm there to represent her in court. But the laws there deal with the murder of an infant very severely," he submitted.

The petition said, "On February 14, 2025, the petitioner's daughter telephoned him from detention, informing him that she had been relocated within the facility and that, prior to her potential execution, her final wish was to speak with her parents.”

"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," it added.

The plea said the woman travelled to Abu Dhabi in December 2021 after obtaining a legal visa. In August 2022, her employer gave birth to a son for whom Shahzadi was employed as a caregiver. On December 7, 2022, the infant received routine vaccinations and tragically passed away that evening, it said.

It claimed that the infant's parents refused consent for a post-mortem and also signed an agreement to waive further investigation into the death.