Sabbeer Khan, father of Shahzadi Khan who was executed in Abu Dhabi, has blamed the Abu Dhabi authorities and India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for informing the family about her execution more than 15 days after it occurred. He alleged that “the government did not support us.”
“She was not given justice. I tried my best. I have been trying since last year. I don’t have enough money to go there (Abu Dhabi) and hire a lawyer. The government did not support us”, Sabbeer Khan, the father of Shahzadi, told PTI.
The family also claimed that the burial of her body was postponed as the jail authorities were awaiting consent from the Indian embassy.
They accused an embassy official of responsibility for the situation, citing a communication gap in providing information and a failure to respond to calls and emails.
The 33-year-old Shahzadi Khan, a caregiver from Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district, who was sentenced to death last year in the UAE for the alleged murder of a four-month-old baby, was executed on February 15, the MEA informed the Delhi High Court on Monday during a hearing on the family’s petition seeking information about her well-being.
On being informed about the development, Justice Sachin Datta termed it “very unfortunate”.
Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma informed the court on March 3, stating, “It is over. She was executed on February 15. Her last rites will be held on March 5.”
Shahzadi Khan had been imprisoned in Abu Dhabi’s Al Wathba prison since 2022, charged with murdering the infant child of a couple she was working for in Abu Dhabi.
Her father Sabbeer Khan had repeatedly appealed to the central and state authorities for help, claiming she was falsely implicated in the murder case. The family claimed that she was wrongfully accused of murdering the child.
Their efforts intensified after Shahzadi informed the family in September last year that her appeal had been rejected and that she could be executed anytime.
However, the MEA informed that the Indian embassy had provided legal support, including submitting mercy petitions and pardon requests to the UAE government. But the UAE’s highest court – the Court of Cassation – upheld Shehzadi’s death sentence.
In an audio recording shared by her brother, Shehzadi alleged that an individual named Uzair Choudhary from Agra trafficked her. She further claimed that her employers in Abu Dhabi tortured her and falsely accused her of murder following a child’s death, which she attributed to vaccination.
In a Facebook post, the family claimed: “The doctor who conducted the post-mortem told the court that there were no marks on the child’s face, nose, or throat.” The family allegedly halted the post-mortem, despite legal requirements for its completion before burial, as reported by the doctor to the court.
Shahzadi, who was unmarried, was the youngest of the three daughters of Sabbeer and his wife Nazra Begum. She studied up to the sixth grade and suffered severe burn injuries on her face and other parts of her body when she was six.
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