How Dubai Police played guardian angel to Indian child while parents were in jail

Dubai: Torn between hope and despair, Nasir Bin Hadi and Nusrat Sultana had waited for this moment every single day for the past several months. When it finally came, the parents couldn’t contain their emotions.

The Dubai-based Indian couple had been separated from their four-year- old son, Nabil, following an unfortunate turn of events which saw them ending up in jail within a week of each other for financial crimes.

With no one to take care of the child, Dubai Police assumed the role of guardian angel and looked after the boy for almost five months until he was reunited with his parents last week after their release from prison.

Nusrat spent four and a half months in jail while Hadi spent a little over two months.

Caring and loving environment

In their absence, not only did Dubai Police and the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children (DFWC) give their only child a caring and loving environment, they also ensured he got education and the best medical treatment when he fell ill.

“I have no words to thank them for going that extra mile and looking after Nabil,” said Nusrat Sultana when Gulf News met the family in Hyatt Regency, Deira.

“In jail, I used to get nightmares thinking of what would have happened to Nabil but when I visited him at the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children I realised that all my fears were unfounded. He was in very good hands,” she said

Nabil’s father Hadi, 42, said he will remain indebted to Dubai authorities, particularly for a timely medical intervention which he reckons saved his son’s life.

“Nabil had a severe skin infection that needed urgent attention. The police coordinated with the Indian Consulate to make his passport following which he was taken to Latifa Hospital where he underwent treatment for two weeks. I couldn’t get his passport made because my passport was in court,” he said.

Wrong business move

Originally from Hyderabad India, Nabil’s father worked as an office boy at Dubai Municipality for about 14 years before making a foray into property business in 2013. “I got my wife to take Dh140,0000 bank loan and used the money to rent villas in Hor Al Anz which I would then sublease,” said Hadi.

However the business went bust.

Soon, Hadi had a string of bounced cheque cases against him while his wife became wanted by police for defaulting on bank loans.

On October 28, 2018, Nusrat handed his son to Hadi and turned herself in to Naif Police Station.

As luck would have it, Hadi was also arrested the following week when he was caught driving with expired car registration. When the police ran his name through their system they found that he was wanted for issuing dud cheques.

“It was 2am when Hadi was brought before us. He was accompanied by a child who had nowhere to go as his mother was also in prison,” recalled Brigadier Tarek Mohammad, director, Naif police station.

'Our world caved in'

“Our world had caved in,” said Nusrat. “Both me and my husband were in jail now with not even the faintest idea of where our child was,” she said.

Unknown to them, officers at the victims support programme were looking after Nabil.

“We took him to Latifa Hospital for treatment. A separate team, meanwhile, coordinated with the Indian Consulate to prepare the child’s passport as he had no identity papers. Once the child was moved to DFWC, we got her mother to visit him every few days,” said Brigadier Mohammad.

Dubai Police didn’t let up in their efforts even when Nusrat and Hadi were released in March and the child was handed to them. So much so that they extracted a promise from the parents to bring the child to the police station ever week so that the officers could see how the child was doing.

“I had heard about the humane side of Dubai Police. Now I have experienced it first hand,” said Nusrat.