Dubai: Two police corporals have firmly denied the charge that they abused their duty by unlawfully arresting vendors and locking them in police cars to rob them.

The Emirati corporals, 19-year-old H.E. and 20-year-old A.M., strongly and repeatedly denied their 12 charges of kidnap, unlawful arrest, abuse of authority and theft in the Dubai Court of First Instance's courtroom nine on Sunday.

Prosecutors accused the defendants of stealing Dh3,730 from three Bangladeshi vendors after unlawfully detaining them in public and locking them in the police cars. When his charges were levelled against him by Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout, H.E. shook his head disapprovingly and said: "I am not guilty… that incident never happened.

"I never abused my duty in the police force. Besides, the suspects didn't sit in the police car," he said.

A.M. pleaded innocent and said: "Abuse my duty? What duty? I didn't abuse anything. I didn't commit any crime. Nothing of that happened… No, your honour".

According to the chargesheet, prosecutors said the suspects posed as law enforcement officers to 21-year-old M.H. in public before they tricked him into riding in their police car and then driving to a location where they stole his Dh230.

The pair was also accused of unlawfully searching and detaining him.

Prosecution records said the two suspects repeated the same modus operandi with alleged victims N.M. and S.C., both 27, and stole Dh1,500 and Dh2,000 from them respectively.

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Another alleged victim, M.H., testified that the suspects detained him and N.M. when they were selling vegetables to workers in the Al Quoz area.

"They came to us and they were dressed in their uniforms… one of them stepped out of the police car and walked towards us," M.H. said.

"We were asked to ride in their car and they drove off to another area. They searched us and then took our money… Before they left we asked them to give us some money for the taxi. They handed us Dh10 and they disappeared.

"Two hours later we reported the matter to the nearest police station. They took our monies from our pockets and wallets," M.H. said.

The other two Bangladeshis confirmed M.H.'s statement in court.

Judge Barghout adjourned the case until later this month.