NEW DELHI: The ministry of external affairs (MEA) on Monday informed the Delhi high court that Shahzadi Khan, a woman from Uttar Pradesh, was executed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on February 15.
Additional solicitor general (ASG) Chetan Sharma, representing the Centre, also said that authorities were extending all possible assistance to her family. He added that her cremation is scheduled for March 5. With this confirmation, the high court disposed of her father’s plea seeking the MEA’s intervention.
Earlier, Shahzadi’s father, Shabbir, had approached the Delhi high court, requesting the MEA’s assistance in obtaining precise details about her legal status and well-being. He had sought the issuance of a bulletin to clarify her situation.
Shahzadi, a resident of Banda district in Uttar Pradesh, was convicted of the murder of a four-month-old child and had been lodged in Abu Dhabi’s Al Batwa jail.
Last year, her father had made multiple appeals, including to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, pleading for intervention to save her life.
Shabbir had claimed that his daughter was wrongfully implicated. He recounted that Shahzadi had suffered facial burns in childhood and later worked with the ‘Roti Bank of Banda’ organiszation during the Covid-19 lockdown. She had befriended Uzair, a resident of Agra, through Facebook, who in November 2021 arranged for her to travel to Dubai under the pretext of medical treatment. Uzair’s relatives, including his uncle Faiz, aunt Nazia, and Nazia’s mother-in-law Anjum Sahana Begum, lived in Dubai.
According to Shabbir, Nazia gave birth to a son who died at four months and 21 days, after which Shahzadi was accused of the child’s murder.
“Nazia gave birth to a son, who died at the age of four months and 21 days, and Shahzadi has been implicated in the murder of this child,” he had said.
“At present my daughter Shahzadi is lodged in Abu Dhabi’s Al Batwa jail and she (Shahzadi) called on Sunday to inform me that she could be hanged any time after September 20,” he said.
“On the order of a court, an FIR was lodged in Mataundh police station on July 15, 2024 for selling his daughter in Dubai, but Investigation Officer (IO) Sub Inspector Mohammad Akram did not take a single step in the investigation,” he had alleged.