Dubai: A policeman was sentenced to three years in jail for arresting a visitor and forcing him to sign a promissory note for the benefit of a businessman, a Dubai court heard on Wednesday.
The 49-year-old Iranian corporal, and another officer, went in a police patrol car to arrest an Iranian victim. Details emerged that the corporal’s Indian businessman friend had a financial dispute with the victim’s father.
According to Dubai Public Prosecution, in April of this year, the 24-year-old Iranian victim was in his hotel in the Naif area of Dubai, when the defendant came in his police uniform and took him to the police patrol vehicle.
“I sat on the back seat of the police car and there was another policeman in the front seat. They took me to a shop belonging to the Indian businessman in the same area. The businessman is known to my father but I don’t know him well,” said the victim in records. “He told me that I con people and that I must return the money.”
When they arrived at the shop, the 48-year-old businessman took a video of the victim sitting inside the patrol vehicle.
The businessman then brought a promissory note and told the victim to sign it.
“The businessman told me that I must return Dh132,000 to him by signing the note. He claimed that the amount is part of a financial dispute with my father. When I refused, he threatened to ask the policemen to put me in jail,” he said.
The corporal then handcuffed the victim and threatened to take him to the police station where he would be assaulted in jail if he didn’t sign the paper.
The victim signed the paper and later he was taken back to his hotel by the businessman, who asked the victim to give him his valuable items.
“I was afraid and gave him five watches, necklaces and four perfumes worth Dh19,000,” the victim added.
The victim alerted his father who asked him to report the incident at Naif police station.
An Emirati police officer testified that they summoned the 52-year-old policeman who was in the police patrol with the corporal and he confessed that the Indian businessman knew the corporal and that he called him to solve a dispute.
Prosecution said the businessman’s phone had WhatsApp voice messages between the corporal and the businessman in which the Indian defendant asked the policeman to check if he is wanted or not.
The second policeman said they were in police patrol when the Indian businessman called his colleague and told him that he has a financial problem with the victim.
The Indian businessman was charged with forcing the victim to sign on promissory note of Dh132,000 and theft. He was sentenced to three years in jail and will be deported with the Iranian policeman after serving their jail term.
The corporal was charged with illegally arresting the victim, abetment to crime and illegally providing official information or data to the businessman.
Meanwhile, the court ordered to refer the 52-year-old Iranian policeman to a misdemeanour court to face charges of negligence to report a crime.
