Dubai: A man has been accused of molesting an eight-year-old boy after the minor’s father hired him to give his children private lessons in reading the Quran.
The 34-year-old Bangladeshi man who, according to records, is a cook, molested the Pakistani boy while teaching him how to read the Quran in December.
The cook entered a not guilty plea and firmly refuted his accusations before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Tuesday.
According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said the suspect abused the fact that the children were with him in the sitting room and away from their parents when he molested the older boy.
The Pakistani father testified to prosecutors that he hired the defendant to give his children private lessons thrice a week on how to read the Quran.
“He used to teach my kids, aged five and eight, in the sitting room every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. My wife used to check up on the suspect and our children every now and then. On the day the incident happened, my son told me that the suspect groped him. My boy claimed to me that the suspect did that several times. Thereafter I reported the matter to the police,” claimed the father.
A police lieutenant testified to prosecutors that the suspect was detained a week after the father’s complaint.
“The father claimed that the suspect is an imam of a mosque… yet following his arrest, we discovered that he was hired as a cook by an Emirati sponsor. During questioning, the suspect admitted that he taught the children how to read the Quran but he firmly denied molesting the boy or touching him indecently,” he claimed to prosecutors.
A ruling will be heard on March 31.
