Dubai: Two drivers have been jailed for three months each for repeatedly molesting a woman in a crowded lift in the presence of her husband after they had attended a party.
The Indian drivers, 33-year-old K.D. and 38-year-old J.S., repeatedly groped the Sri Lankan woman in February.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted K.D. and J.S. of exploiting the fact that the small lift was crowded when they repeatedly molested the woman.
“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.
J.S. told the court that it was a case of mistaken identity because the other men, who really molested her, looked just like them.
According to the primary ruling, the defendants will be deported after serving their punishment.
The 22-year-old woman said 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 on 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 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 said 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.
The ruling remains subject to appeal.
