Maid jailed for threatening to kill sponsor and family for passport

Dubai: A housemaid who threatened to kill herself or her sponsor and his family if he didn’t return her passport, has been jailed for three months.

In October, the Indian sponsor was at his residence in Al Barsha along with his wife, son and mother-in-law, when the Nepalese housemaid, 31, rushed angrily into the main hall.

The accused yelled at her sponsor and asked him for her passport because she wanted to travel to her country.

When her employer tried to calm her down, the defendant rushed to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, pointing it at her belly. She ten threatened to kill herself or kill her sponsor and his family, if he didn’t let her have the passport.

As the defendant waved the knife in her sponsor’s face, the latter’s five-year-old son came running across the hall, and the maid tried to corner him.

The boy’s grandmother blocked her way to rescue her grandson, but ended up getting injured in the hand by the knife. Police apprehended the defendant shortly after the sponsor called them to the house.

On Wednesday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Nepalese of threatening her sponsor and assaulting the mother-in-law and injuring her.

Presiding judge Arafa Mohammad said the accused, who pleaded not guilty, will be deported after serving her punishment.

“I just wanted my passport to travel home,” the defendant said in court.

The sponsor testified in court, saying: “The accused came into the main hall and shouted angrily that she wanted her passport to travel. I tried to calm her down but she took a knife from the kitchen. She pointed it at her belly and threatened to kill herself. She also waved it in our faces and threatened to kill my family. She ran towards my son, to point the knife at him, but my mother-in-law stopped her,” he testified.

The ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.