Dubai: A worker has been accused of getting drunk and calling Dubai Police’s 999 operator and threatening to set his company’s labour accommodation on fire if he wasn’t paid money.
The 21-year-old Pakistani worker, G.S., was said to have dialled 999 and told the police operator that he would deliberately start a fire in the company’s accommodation at Jebel Ali if he was not paid 20,000 Pakistani rupees [Dh700] while he was drunk in February.
Meanwhile the policemen who arrested him said the man had demanded Dh20,000, according to records.
Prosecutors charged G.S. with threatening to start a fire and getting drunk.
The suspect denied the accusation of threatening to start an intentional fire when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.
According to the chargesheet, prosecutors said the suspect called up Dubai Police’s Operation Room [999] and said that he wanted his employer to pay him Rs20,000 otherwise he would set the labour accommodation on fire. He was also accused of drinking a glass of beer.
“Yes, I consumed alcohol but I did not threaten to set the accommodation on fire,” G.S. told presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi.
He also sought lenient punishment.
One of the policemen who arrested him testified to prosecutors that they were dispatched to the company’s accommodation in Jebel Ali.
“The police operator provided us with the number that the suspect had used to call. Once we reached the premises, we called up the same number and when the suspect answered the landline, we apprehended him instantly. Upon confronting him, the suspect claimed that he had called up the Operation Room and demanded Dh20,000 … he also claimed that he threatened to burn the accommodation if he was not paid,” he claimed to prosecutors.
G.S. was quoted as admitting to prosecutors that when his wife fell ill and required heart surgery, he dialled 999 and threatened to set the accommodation on fire if he did not get 20,000 Pakistani rupees.
A ruling will be heard on May 11.
