Dubai: Prosecutors lost their appeal against a salesman who was cleared of pulling a maid into her bedroom and molesting her after sneaking into her sponsor’s villa.

The 29-year-old Nepalese salesman was alleged to have called up the compatriot maid, whom he knew from before, and told her that he was coming to her sponsor’s villa to wash the latter’s car in February.

In April, the Dubai Court of First Instance acquitted the salesman of trespassing into the villa and molesting the maid.

Prosecutors appealed the primary judgement and sought to have his acquittal overturned before the Dubai Appeal Court.

Presiding judge Saeed Salem Bin Sarm dismissed the prosecutors’ appeal and upheld the man’s acquittal citing lack of strong evidence.

“I went to the villa after she had called me in the evening and asked me to do so … but I did not molest her,” the man told the appellate court as he renewed his not guilty plea.

The case sheet quoted the maid as having asked the salesman not to come to the villa because it was late and she was alone.

The salesman called the maid repeatedly but she did not answer his call until she heard her sponsor’s dog barking loudly and repeatedly before she went out to the garden to check what happened, said records.

The maid claimed that her countryman pulled her into her bedroom before she took an iron and beat him on his head.

The man let her go and absconded once she called her sponsor’s son, said records.

The maid alleged that the man called her at 11.30pm and told her that he wanted to come over and wash her sponsor’s car.

“I asked him not to come because there was nobody at home ... he called me several times later but I didn’t reply and set my phone on silent mode. Sometime around midnight, I heard the dog barking … I went out to check what was wrong and noticed my bedroom door open. I walked towards the bedroom and suddenly the man pulled me in. When he grabbed my hand, I beat him with the iron. Then I called my sponsor’s son while the suspect absconded,” she testified to prosecutors. The man refuted the maid’s claims.

The appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court in 28 days.