Dubai: A dyer knelt down before tens of passengers and apologised to a woman after groping her on a public bus.
The 28-year-old Bangladeshi dyer allegedly groped the Filipina before she scolded him angrily in front of all the passengers in August.
Shortly before that incident, the dyer groped a Filipina secretary at Al Jafliya station. Records said when the bus arrived, they climbed into the bus and the dyer groped the secretary a second time before she moved away from him in August.
Shortly after that, the secretary heard another woman shouting and scolding the dyer.
The two passengers asked the bus driver to call the police and he was later arrested.
Prosecutors accused the 28-year-old of molesting two Filipinas.
The suspect pleaded not guilty when he showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday.
“I touched them by mistake … I did not have any intention to molest them,” he argued before presiding judge Urfan Omar.
The 28-year-old also handed the presiding judge a written waiver which he claimed to have obtained from one of the Filipinas.
The 37-year-old secretary claimed to prosecutors that the incident happened while she waiting in the queue for the bus.
“The suspect stood beside me in the queue when his elbow hit me for two or three seconds … I stared at him angrily but remained silent. We boarded the bus and he stood beside me … he touched me another time for three seconds. I scolded him and a passenger told me to stand away from him. Shortly after that, I heard another Filipina shouting at the suspect and then she pushed him. The suspect immediately knelt down and apologised to her … then she asked the bus driver to pull over and call the police,” she testified to prosecutors.
An Egyptian Roads and Transport Authority inspector claimed to prosecutors that the two Filipinas alleged to him that the suspect had groped them.
The Bangladeshi suspect was quoted as telling prosecutors that he touched the Filipinas by mistake.
A ruling will be heard on November 28.
