Dubai: A masseur molested a 14-year-old schoolboy when he touched him inappropriately as they were both alone in a lift, heard a court on Wednesday.

According to the case, the 14-year-old Indian schoolboy walked out of Dubai Metro near BurJuman Centre when the 39-year-old Pakistani masseur stopped him to ask him for directions in February.

The masseur asked the boy some personal questions and then introduced himself as a massage spa worker, according to records, before he followed the boy into the lift of a building.

The suspect allegedly hugged the boy and touched his waist and thighs. The boy pushed the masseur away and ran out of the lift once the door opened.

The boy ran instantly to his mother and told her what had happened before she reported the matter to the police. The masseur was apprehended shortly after the incident.

Prosecutors accused the suspect of molesting the minor.

The suspect entered a not guilty plea when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday.

“I did not do anything to him … I only patted his shoulder,” he told presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi.

The schoolboy was quoted as telling prosecutors that the suspect stopped him in the street first and asked him for directions.

“He asked me about my name and residency … and then he walked into the same lift. In the lift, he touched me inappropriately. I prevented him from putting his hand on my posterior as he was enticing me to perform a sexual activity with him … I rushed out of the lift quickly once the door opened,” he told prosecutors.

The boy’s mother testified to prosecutors: “My son was shocked and scared when he reached home at 9.15pm. He informed me about what had happened and I called the police. When we examined the CCTV camera footage, my son was spotted running out of the lift quickly and looking back … it was quite obvious that the suspect did something bad to him.”

The Pakistani was quoted as telling prosecutors that he grabbed the boy’s arm muscle as the latter told him that he had a muscular body in the lift.

A ruling will be heard on July 14.