Dubai: Two drivers have been accused of repeatedly molesting a woman in a crowded lift in the presence of her husband.
The Indian drivers, 33-year-old K.D. and 38-year-old J.S., were said to have repeatedly groped the Sri Lankan woman in February.
Prosecutors accused the duo and other unidentified men of molesting the woman.
The suspects pleaded not guilty when they showed up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.
According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said the defendants exploited the fact that the small lift was crowded when they repeatedly touched the woman indecently.
“We did not grope her … the lift was crowded with other men who wore the same attire we wore. They were the ones who molested the woman,” K.D. argued before the presiding judge.
J.S. told the court that the woman mistook their identity because the other men, who really molested her, looked just like them.
The 22-year-old woman claimed to prosecutors that she and her husband had left a party when the incident happened inside the lift of their building in Jebel Ali.
“My husband was beside me in the lift when we were going up to our flat. The party was at the ground floor. The men seemed drunk. Some of them groped me repeatedly … when my husband tried to stop them, they fought with him. They tried to assault him and pushed him out of the lift. They were five or six men who molested me,” she testified.
The Indian husband testified to prosecutors that he tried to push the men away when they groped his wife.
Records said the woman and her husband maintained that five men, including K.D. and J.S., molested the wife.
A policeman claimed to prosecutors that K.D. confessed to him that he groped the wife.
“J.S. refuted the accusations that he molested the wife … he claimed that when he heard the woman shout and fight with the five men, he intervened and tried to stop the fight,” he testified.
A ruling will be heard next month.
