Dubai: A cleaner and his mistress have been jailed for one year each for carrying on an illicit relationship.

The 30-year-old cleaner, M.R, a Pakistani national, has been confined to a wheelchair ever since he jumped off a second-floor balcony while trying to avoid being caught out during a secret visit to his 28-year-old mistress, D.K, a Nepalese national, at the residence of the latter’s sponsor.

The duo claimed that they were only having a conversation inside the apartment of D.K’s sponsor when the building’s watchman unexpectedly knocked at the door. The cleaner, fearful that his affair would be exposed, jumped off the balcony and sustained injuries to his spinal cord and legs, besides fracturing an arm.

The Dubai Misdemeanour Court sentenced the duo to one year in jail each followed by deportation.

Court records said D.K. was pregnant with M.R’s child following a five-month relationship that began after he was hired to clean the Indian sponsor’s car.

The Bangladeshi watchman said he saw the cleaner enter the flat while the Indian sponsor was at work. “I rushed up to the flat and knocked on the door,” the watchman said. “D.K. opened and denied hosting a stranger inside. Suddenly I heard a loud bang. When I went down, I realised that M.R. had jumped from the second-floor balcony and broken his legs and arm.”

The woman testified that she first got acquainted with the cleaner while he was cleaning her sponsor’s car next to their building in Ras Al Khor. “We exchanged our contact details and our relationship developed into a love affair,” she said.

“Our parents had agreed to our marriage. On the day of the incident, I asked M.R. to take some clothes. When the watchman knocked at the door, M.R. ran to the balcony and jumped because he didn’t want to be exposed,” D.K. told the presiding judge in Courtroom 11.

M.R. confessed to having consensual sex with D.K. arguing that they loved each other and had planned to get married. “I went there to pick some clothes, suddenly the watchman knocked at the door. I wanted to run away from him and so I jumped,” he said.

Prosecutors charged the defendants with having consensual sex. D.K. was accused of allowing M.R. to enter her sponsor’s flat. M.R. was also charged with trespassing.

When the lovers appeared before the court, they pleaded guilty and confessed to having consensual sex.

The Indian sponsor testified that D.K. had been working for her for eight months. She said the watchman informed her over the phone that he had spotted the cleaner entering her flat before he was found to have fallen from the balcony.

The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 12 days.