Dubai: Five cleaners have been accused of fatally assaulting their co-worker when they brutally beat and kicked him because one of them had slapped the victim’s friend.

The five Bangladeshi cleaners, aged between 23 and 30, were said to have ganged up against the Indian co-worker in the labour accommodation and repeatedly beat him, kicked him and banged his head against the wall in August.

The victim sustained several critical injuries in the upper part of his body and bled profusely before paramedics pronounced him dead at the crime scene in Al Quoz, said records.

Records said the Indian co-worker went to check why one of the five cleaners slapped his colleague, which angered the man and he assaulted the victim along with his four colleagues.

Prosecutors accused the suspects of assaulting the deceased and causing his death.

The defendants pleaded not guilty and refuted the accusation of being responsible for the victim’s demise when they appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.

According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said the suspects assaulted the victim that led to his death without intending to kill him.

Four the suspects told presiding judge Mohammad Jamal that they did not hit the victim or touch him.

The fifth suspect [who had slapped the victim’s friend] pleaded innocent.

A 45-year-old Indian cleaner testified to prosecutors that the incident happened shortly after he had informed the deceased that one of the suspects had slapped him.

“We were at the labour accommodation at 8.30pm, when one of the suspects came to my room and called me. I went to discuss a matter with him when he slapped me for having reported him to our supervisor that he [that suspect] had been lazy at work. When I returned to my room, I told the victim what happened. The latter went to confront the suspect and ask him why he had slapped me … colleagues and I tried to stop him, but he was angered that I had been slapped and insisted on confronting the man who slapped me. The suspects ganged up against the victim and beat him. He succumbed to the many injuries that he sustained during the brutal and random assault,” he claimed to prosecutors.

Four eyewitnesses confirmed the statement of the 45-year-old cleaner.

Police were summoned to the labour accommodation and the five suspects were taken into custody.

Presiding judge Jamal adjourned the hearing until the suspects present their written defence when the court reconvenes on December 6.