The woman was executed on February 15. Her last rites will be held on Wednesday. The submission was made in a hearing on a petition by the woman's father seeking to know her well-being
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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 was informed on Monday, as per news agency PTI.
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The woman's father had filed a plea in the Delhi High Court, seeking to know her well-being.
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.
Shahzadi Khan was handed over to the Abu Dhabi Police on February 10, 2023, and she was sentenced to death on July 31, the same year. She was lodged in the Al Wathba jail, PTI reported.
Her father Shabbir, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Banda, said there was "profound uncertainty" regarding his daughter's situation and claimed that his repeated applications to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for clarification were fruitless.
His plea further alleged that Khan was inadequately represented before the local courts in the case over the alleged murder of her employer's child and she was pressured into confessing the crime, 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, PTI reported.
He said on February 14, Khan 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, the woman's father said.
The Centre's counsel told the Delhi High 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.
According to the plea, the woman travelled to Abu Dhabi in December 2021 after obtaining a visa. In August 2022, her employer gave birth to a son for whom Khan was employed as a caregiver. On December 7, 2022, the infant received routine vaccinations and tragically passed away that evening, it said.
The woman's father claimed that the infant's parents refused consent for a post-mortem and also signed an agreement to waive further investigation into the death.
(With PTI inputs)
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