Dubai A man has been accused of leaving the body of his girlfriend, who died of a drug overdose, at the doorsteps of her sister’s residence.

Drug enforcement officers were said to have been searching for the 32-year-old Emirati man and apprehended him at his friend’s house in Umm Al Sheif in November. Primary interrogations showed that the 32-year-old man had been involved in causing the death of a woman, who died of drug overdose.

The Emirati and his girlfriend were believed to have been consuming heroin together when the woman died of overdose. The man drove his car to Al Barsha where he dropped the woman’s body at the sister’s house and drove away.

Prosecutors accused the 32-year-old of hiding away a dead body and leaving it in a public street.

The suspect pleaded not guilty when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday.

“I did not do that. Actually I do not know the woman and hadn’t done anything wrong … at the time of the incident, I was hospitalised,” the suspect contended before presiding judge Urfan Omar.

When asked by the presiding judge about his demands, the suspect replied: “I plead for mercy because I do not want to lose my job as I have a family to support.”

An anti-narcotics police lieutenant testified to prosecutors that the suspect was arrested following an informant’s tip off that he had been possessing and consuming drugs.

“When we raided his residence in Al Barsha we did not find him. Later we arrested him at his friend’s house. We discovered afterwards that he had been involved in the disappearance of an Emirati woman who reportedly died of drug overdose. During questioning, he claimed that the deceased woman was present with him and they had been consuming drugs … he alleged that she stayed with him until midnight and when he tried to wake her up, she was unresponsive. Thereafter he claimed that he left her before her sister’s residence and left,” the lieutenant claimed to prosecutors.

This is the second case of its kind that surfaced at the Dubai Courts during February.

On February 8, a jobless Emirati man was jailed for five years for providing drugs to his girlfriend, who died of an overdose.

The convict had spent with his countrywoman two days in his car where he gave her drugs and mind-altering substances in August. He then drove towards a private hospital where he left the woman’s body in front of the entrance shortly after she lost consciousness after consuming drugs.

The ruling in Monday’s case will be heard on February 27.