Waiter jailed for delivering extra prison meals for bribes
Defendant fined Dh5,000 for abusing his job to deliver extra food to prisoner against phone credit
Dubai: A waiter, who accepted recharge cards in bribes against distributing extra meals to prisoners inside Dubai Central Jail, has been jailed for three months
Dubai Police were alerted that the 23-year-old Indian waiter, who worked for a catering company that delivers meals to jail prisoners, had been taking bribes in the form of phone recharge cards against delivering extra meals in May.
Dubai Police commissioned an informant inside the Central Jail, as part of a sting operation, to communicate with the waiter and have him deliver an extra meal against phone credit.
Police arrested the 23-year-old Indian worker in a sting operation, during which, the latter was caught red handed taking Dh110 in phone recharge credit after he had delivered an extra meal to the informant.
On Tuesday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Indian defendant of abusing his job and taking phone recharge of Dh110 as a bribe.
Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal also fined the accused, who has pleaded not guilty, Dh5,000.
The accused will be deported following the completion of his punishment, said presiding judge Jamal.
When he showed up in court, the accused contended that he did not take the recharge as a bribe.
“A prisoner gave me the phone recharge but not as a bribe … I didn’t give him anything in return,” argued the defendant, who was taken into immediate custody at courtroom three.
A police corporal testified that an informant alerted them that the accused had been taking phone recharge from prisoners against delivering extra meals.
“We commissioned the informant to contact the defendant and ask for an extra meal to be delivered in his cell against phone recharge. Once the 23-year-old waiter accepted the phone recharge, police apprehended him. As he was searched, we found in his pocket a paper that contained the serial number of the phone recharge. During questioning, the accused said he refused a prisoner’s offer to give him an extra meal against phone recharge. He claimed that when he refused to take the paper, the prisoner left the paper on the table and walked away before he took it and placed it in his pocket … then the prisoner reported him and he got arrested,” said the corporal.
The ruling remains subject to appeal.