Dubai: The two Indian teenage daughters of a couple who were murdered in a Dubai gated community will be testifying before the Dubai Courts on February 10 this year.
According to the Dubai Court of First Instance, the two Indian sisters, aged 18 and 13, will be heard in the coming session along with a friend of the deceased. Indian couple Hiren, 48 and Vidhi Adhiya 40, were murdered in the bedroom of their villa at the Arabian Ranches on June, 17, 2020 allegedly by a 26-year-old Pakistani worker.
The defendant, who attended the first hearing through a video-conference at his prison cell, denied charges of murder, attempted murder and theft.
Online hearings in Dubai Courts are in line with precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawyer assigned by the court to defend him failed to attend three court hearings. The judges issued a Dh1,000 fine for the assigned lawyer.
According to official records, the defendant, who had done some maintenance jobs at the villa a year before the murder, had been stalking the family for some time after he saw a lot of loose cash in the house.
The worker stabbed the husband 10 times and the wife 14 times. Both died of their injuries.
The worker also stabbed the elder daughter as he sought to escape, but she survived and managed to call the police.
The defendant admitted during the interrogation that he planned his robbery and bought a knife from a supermarket in Sharjah.
“I bought a knife and paid a Pakistani driver Dh70 to drive me to the area. I waited outside the villa on the pavement from 7pm until 11pm before climbing into the villa’s garden. I waited for another two hours for the family to fall asleep,” the defendant told police during interrogation.
He took off his shoes and sneaked in through an unlocked door, searching for money. He stole Dh1,965 from a wallet he found on the first floor. He then remembered the amount of cash he saw in the couple’s bedroom a year ago when he came for maintenance. He then entered the room and began searching for the money in a drawer. Hiren is said to have woken up at the sound of the drawer being opened.
The defendent said, “I opened the drawer next to the man’s head when he woke up. I raised the knife and stabbed him several times on several parts of his body. His wife woke up and I stabbed her too.”
At the parents’ cries for help, the couple’s 18-year-old elder daughter woke up and came to check, coming face to face with the suspect. In his attempt to flee, the murderer stabbed her in the neck and ran away. “I threw the knife away in the sand and walked until I reached the Dubai-Al Ain Road. I called the person who dropped me to take me back to Sharjah,” the defendant said.
The worker was arrested by Dubai Police within 24 hours.
