Dubai: A worker has been accused of getting drunk along with his four friends and then assaulting two men in the street and stealing a mobile phone that the duo had just purchased.
The two Indian men were said to have purchased new mobile phones and left the store in Naif before the 27-year-old Bangladeshi worker and his four friends stopped them in a dark alley in December.
The five Bangladeshi men beat up the two Indians, according to records, before they took away the new mobile phone from the pocket of one of them and absconded.
The Indians tried to chase the assailants for a distance before the five men disappeared.
The Indians reported the matter to the police who arrested the 27-year-old who was found hiding in the vicinity.
The four other men remain at large.
Prosecutors accused the worker and the others [who remain at large] of drinking alcohol and stealing a phone.
The defendant failed to appear before the Dubai Court of First Instance where he was scheduled to enter his plea on Thursday.
A 30-year-old Indian man claimed to prosecutors that he was mugged a few minutes after he had purchased a new mobile phone and left the store.
“I went to the store with my countryman and purchased a new phone. When we walked out of the store, five men ganged up against us in a dark alley between buildings. They beat us and wanted to rob us. Then only found my new phone and stole it. We ran after them for a distance before we lost track as they vanished inside a building. The robbers were heavily drunk when they assaulted us. Fifteen minutes after having reported the police, I was summoned to the police station to identify one of the assailants. I identified the 27-year-old worker from the line-up three times … I had seen his face when he took the mobile from my pocket,” he testified to prosecutors.
His countryman confirmed his statement.
The trial continues.
