Dubai: A bootlegger has been accused of offering a bribe of Dh30,000 and a promise of Dh50,000 as "monthly salary" to a policeman in return for tuning a blind eye to his gang members' activities, according to the Dubai Court of First Instance.
Official records said the 45-year-old Indian defendant used to inform Dubai Police about the location of bootleggers in Al Muhaisnah area.
In December 2018, the defendant called a 32-year-old Emirati police officer who works in the Criminal Investigation Department at Dubai Police and offered him money to stop the raids.
“He offered to pay [a] Dh30,000 bribe if I agreed not to conduct the raids in Muhaisnah or at least alert him before we raided the area. I told him that I needed time to think and he promised a Dh50,000 monthly salary for me,” the Emirati policeman said.
The officer informed his director who asked him to set a trap for the defendant and arrest him.
He then went to Al Nahda and met the Indian defendant who handed him Dh30,000.
“The bribery was to let him work freely in the area,” the officer added.
Dubai Police arrested the defendant as soon as the money was handed over to the officer.
Prosecutors said that the defendant confessed to offering the bribe, but denied being a bootlegger. He told prosecutors that he was working for another Indian bootlegger who gave him the money for the bribe.
“I used to cooperate with the officer for three years in providing him with information about bootleggers’ whereabouts. A bootlegger asked me to contact the policeman to offer bribe in order not to arrest his men,” the defendant said in records.
The trial has been rescheduled for March 18.
