Dubai: A worker, who stabbed his co-worker with a vegetable knife in a drunken rage, pleaded innocent in court on Monday.
In the October incident, the 29-year-old Indian worker and his co-worker, also from India, returned to their room at a labour accommodation in Muhaisnah after a night out drinking.
They got into a heated argument that developed into a fight during which the 29-year-old grabbed a vegetable knife, according to records, and stabbed his countryman twice in his abdomen.
Screaming in pain, the victim fell on the floor bleeding profusely while the accused fled the scene with the knife.
A fellow worker heard the victim’s cries for help and rushed to the room to find part of the victim’s intestines falling out of his abdomen.
He called out to other workers who reported the incident to police and called an ambulance.
The victim underwent immediate surgery that saved his life.
Police launched a manhunt and apprehended the accused, who was found hiding between two cars in a parking lot in Al Ghusais.
Prosecutors charged him with attempt to murder and drinking liquor.
Appearing before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday, the accused told presiding judge Urfan Omar: “I didn’t intend to stab him. We had a heated argument as we had been drinking together ... I don’t remember what happened exactly as I was under the influence of liquor.”
The worker who first rushed to the victim’s rescue testified to prosecutors that he was listening to music when he overheard the heated argument.
A policeman testified to prosecutors that “we searched the vicinity and apprehended the suspect hiding in a parking lot after an hour. As soon as we arrested the suspect and questioned him about the stabbing, he claimed that he had a heated argument with his coworker and then stabbed him with a knife. He claimed that he threw away the knife in a sandy area near the accommodation, but we couldn’t recover the knife used in the stabbing. The suspect was taken into custody”.
A ruling will be heard on March 29.
