Tanker driver accused of jabbing co-worker’s eye

Dubai: A tanker driver has been accused of jabbing his co-worker’s eye with a screwdriver and causing him a permanent disability after they brawled in a parking lot.

The 30-year-old Pakistani, M.N., who drives a water tanker, was said to have arrived at a pump station wanting to fill his tanker with salty water when he got into a fight with his countryman driver, M.R., and jabbed his eye following a heated argument in July.

Prosecutors accused M.N. of assaulting M.R. with a screwdriver.

The suspect pleaded not guilty and denied the accusation of assaulting M.R. when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Sunday.

According to the charge sheet, prosecutors said the suspect assaulted M.R. and caused him a 35 per cent permanent disability in his right eye.

M.N. contended before the presiding judge that the claimant injured himself and he had nothing to do with the injury.

M.R. claimed to prosecutors that the incident happened while he was doing his friend [also a tanker driver] a favour and watching his tanker while filling it with salty water in Jebel Ali.

“My friend asked me to wait until his tank gets filled with salty water at the station … in the meantime, the suspect came and parked his tanker beside my friend’s tanker. He asked me to move the tanker but I told him that I was not the driver and told him to wait. The suspect got irritated and we had a heated argument. Then he went to his tanker and took out a screwdriver and angrily jabbed it in my face. I fell down unconscious. Witnesses who spotted what had happened restrained the suspect and prevented him from running away until the police came and apprehended him,” M.R. testified to prosecutors.

The presiding judge adjourned the case until M.R. hires a lawyer to defend him when the court reconvenes on April 19.