Dubai: On that fateful night of June 18, when Indian expatriates Hiren Adhiya and Vidhi Adhiya went to bed as usual at their Arabian Ranches villa, little did they know that it would be their last on this earth.
Unbeknown to them, a Pakistani worker, who had done some maintenance jobs at their villa a year earlier, had been stalking the family for some time. During that visit, he had seen a lot of loose cash at the house. After seeing that he had made up his mind to rob the family at an opportune time. When he finally did, he killed the unlucky couple in a robbery that went horribly wrong.
Grisly details have emerged during the Dubai Police’s investigation of the murder of the Indian couple earlier this year. The worker stabbed the husband 10 times, the wife another 14 times as they tried to get away. Both died of their injuries. He also stabbed the elder daughter as he sought to escape, but she survived the ordeal and managed to call the police. The worker was arrested within 24 hours.
Planning the act
With robbery on his mind, the worker patiently started familiarising himself with the family’s daily routine. Finally, on the fateful day, he planned his robbery. “I bought a knife from a Sharjah supermarket 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 next to Hiren Adhiya. Hiren woke up at the sound of the drawer being opened. “I opened the drawer next to the husband’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,” the defendant said.
Daughter faces murderer
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 18-year-old daughter testified that she woke up when she heard her parents’ screams around 1:30am. “I went to their room using the mobile phone light and saw the suspect. He tried to kill me by stabbing in the neck and escaped. I saw my father on the ground bleeding. My younger sister was also awake by then. We locked the door and I called the police,” the daughter said, according to official records.
The 35-year-old Pakistani driver testified that he was in Sharjah when the suspect paid him Dh70 to drop him near a petrol station closed to Arabian Ranches at 5:30pm. After 12 hours, the suspect called him back, asking to pick him up near a bridge at Dubai Al Ain road. “He sat on the back seat and looked scared. He told me that he was feeling sick. He was barefoot and I saw scratches on his neck. When I asked him about it, he claimed that he had a fight with a group of Bangladeshi men over money. I dropped him back to Sharjah,” the Pakistani driver told the police.
Dubai Police arrested the defendant within 24 hours. He was charged with double murder, attempted murder of the couple’s daughter and robbery. Dubai Public Prosecution will ask the court to issue a death penalty for the 24-year-old Pakistani defendant over premeditated murder of the Indian couple.
A date for the first hearing of the case will soon be set by the Dubai Court of First Instance.
