School bus molestation: Blackmail bluff?

Dubai: In a dramatic turn of events on Wednesday, a lawyer hired by Dubai Modern High School to defend three Indian men facing trial in the school bus molestation case accused the mother of the four-year-old alleged victim of blackmail.

Defence lawyer Sameer Jaafar stunned the court by saying that the girl's mother contacted the Gems-run school this month seeking a job for herself and asking for her daughter to rejoin classes.

The lawyer said the sexual assault allegations made by the Indian mother were a cover-up to land a job in the school.

"It's strange that a mother who claims her daughter was sexually assaulted wants her to go back to the same school. It's clearly a blackmailing situation," Jaafar said in the court, adding that the confessions mentioned in case records were coerced by Dubai Police and therefore should not be considered definite proof.

Jaafar questioned why the parents waited so long before filing their report. "The complaint was filed on January 9, 2011 — almost two months after the alleged incident, 59 days to be specific. In the meantime, the mother asked the school for a job," he said.

Talking to XPRESS late night on Wednesday, the girl's parents rubbished the blackmail charges, dismissing them as a figment of imagination.

The mother said she sent a text message to the Dubai Modern School Principal Darryl Bloud asking if she could "send her [daughter] back to school from 4th April" as she had been out of school for five months. She said following a favourable response from the principal, she sent him another SMS "thanking him for the assurance" and asking if she could also join the school as an assistant teacher so that she could be with her daughter while she was in school.

"I was worried about her safety and, since besides a Masters I also have a degree of Bachelor of Education, I thought I may as well join the school and be around my daughter. What's wrong in that? My SMS as you can see is very categorical. It says: ‘Though I know dat even if im not there she would be taken gud care in Modern'."

The child's father said when Principal Darryl Bloud sent them an email acknowleding their SMS, he instantly sensed foul play and therefore did not reply to it.

"I was right. Because now their lawyer is using these exchanges against us. The insinuation that I am doing all this to get a job for my wife is ludicrous. I have nothing against the school but I am appalled that we are being accused of blackmail," the girl's father said.

"I make a handsome salary. We have been in Dubai for four years and are pretty well off. The reason she enquired for a job was solely because she wanted to be close to our child."

The next hearing is on April 6.