Dubai: A chef has been accused of repeatedly stabbing his co-worker in his chest and killing him for eavesdropping on the former speaking to his wife over the phone and also for communicating with the woman on the phone despite his warning not to do so.

The 27-year-old Pakistani chef was said to have grabbed a knife and stabbed his countryman thrice and killed him because he did not refrain from communicating with the chef’s wife over the phone in December last year.

The chef tried to run away from the workplace where he had stabbed the victim, according to records, before coworkers restrained him and handed him over to the police.

When questioned by police at the crime scene, the 27-year-old said he had repeatedly warned the deceased against calling his wife and interfering in his marital issues.

Prosecutors accused the chef of intentionally stabbing his countryman and killing him.

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

“I did not have any intentions to kill him … it happened by mistake,” he contended before presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi.

“What do you mean by mistake? What happened then?” judge Al Shamsi asked the suspect.

“We had a previous dispute and had a fight … when he tried to stab me with the knife, I took it away from him and stabbed him,” contended the 27-year-old.

A Pakistani chef testified to prosecutors: “I had been a co-worker of them for a long time … I have never seen or heard them fighting before. That day, the victim was cooking inside the kitchen when the defendant was talking over the phone. Suddenly, the latter got angry and I heard him call a name three times … then he grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the deceased three times in the kitchen of the restaurant where we all worked. Then he ran way although I tried to stop him. However, the building’s security stopped him until the police came and apprehended him.”

A policeman claimed to prosecutors that when he questioned the suspect, the latter told him that he stabbed the victim because he had not stopped calling his wife despite having repeatedly warned him not to.

The court will appoint a lawyer to defend the suspect when it reconvenes on March 26.