Dubai: A man has been accused of impersonating a policeman and kidnapping a dyer in a car and threatening to have him jailed for 10 years if he did not pay Dh5,000.
The 27-year-old jobless man, M.A., from Comoros Islands, was said to have lured the Bangladeshi dyer to his car and drove off with the complicity of another suspect, who remains at large, in February 2015.
The defendant was claimed to have posed as a policeman before he and his absconding accomplice confined the dyer in the car for 90 minutes before they stole his Dh300. Then they coerced the Bangladeshi to call his friend and convince him to bring them Dh5,000 if he did not want to go to jail. The friend only managed to pay Dh1,000.
Prosecutors accused the suspect of kidnap, impersonation, theft and threat.
Jail wardens did not bring the suspect from his detention and produce him before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday to enter his plea.
According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said M.A. and the absconding accomplice used deception to lure the dyer into their car after they posed as policemen. They locked the 39-year-old Bangladeshi in their vehicle before they stole his Dh300 and his friend’s Dh1,000 under coercion and threat.
The dyer claimed to prosecutors that the suspects stopped him while he stood in front of a restaurant in Naif at noon.
“One of them forced me into the car … they claimed to be from the police. I presented my labour card when they asked me to do so. Then one of them asked how much money I had in my pocket … then he took away my Dh300. They asked me for more money. One of them said that he would have me jailed for 10 years if I did not pay him Dh5,000. Then they made me call my friend and ask him to bring Dh5,000. My friend came and paid them only Dh1,000 which is all he had. The suspect met my friend behind a building and took the money. The defendant [M.A.] then walked into Naif police station for a few minutes while the other man [runaway] and I stayed in the car. He handed me my identification papers and dropped me. I recorded the car number plate then I went to meet my friend and told him what happened,” the dyer testified to prosecutors.
The Bangladeshi man and his friend reported the matter to the police.
A police corporal claimed to prosecutors that M.A. admitted that he locked the dyer in the car and took his Dh1,300.
“The defendant alleged that he lured the dyer into his car after the latter offered on him women to have sex with. However the Bangladeshi cried, according to M.A.’s statement, and begged him not to take him to the police and gave him the money,” the corporal testified.
Presiding judge Urfan Omar adjourned the hearing until the defendant is brought from his detention when the court reconvenes on June 21.
