Irked businessman held for locking couple in wooden crate

A man has been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping a married couple who were held captive in a wooden crate at a Jebel Ali contracting company for 17 hours. The 27-year-old man and his 25-year-old wife were eventually rescued after they managed to contact a friend who called the police.

Brig. Sharfuddin Mohammed Hussain, Assistant Chief of Dubai Police for Criminal Investigation Affairs, said a police patrol freed the couple from the box, which measured 2.5 by 1.5 metres.

Sharfuddin said the crime was the first of its kind in the country and centres around allegations of visa racketeering.

"The investor brought the couple to the UAE on visit visas after making an arrangement with them in India that they would pay him a certain amount for recruiting them at his contracting company in Dubai," he said.

Lt Khalid bin Hazeem, Director of Jebel Ali Police Station, said the couple had agreed to pay Rs260,000 - around Dh25,000 - for employment at the company.

"The investor was processing their work visas but they did not pay him the amount," he said. "The couple told him that they had not brought the money with them as they feared he might not have been serious in offering them a job."

He said the investor locked them in the box at 11pm on Monday, and the following day the couple asked him to let them use the telephone to ask their parents in India for the money. "He let the wife out of the box to use the telephone but instead of calling her parents, she called a friend who alerted the police," Hazeem said.

The investor was at the company when police arrived at 4.30pm on Tuesday and he led officers to the box where the couple were being held. "He admitted the accusation, although he claimed that he did not know that holding someone captive was illegal in the UAE," he said.

The investor, who has bought four plots of land at the Emirates Hills development for Dh5 million, told police that he was scared the couple would run away without paying him the Rs260,000.