Dubai: A vendor has been accused of molesting an 8-year-old schoolboy after luring him for a video and photo session at a children’s garment store where he worked.

The 8-year-old Indian schoolboy was used to accompany his mother every Saturday to a mall where she worked in a pharmacy after his Quran recitation lessons in Al Hamriya.

One Saturday, the boy was present with his mother at the pharmacy when, according to records, the 20-year-old Pakistani vendor, who works in the neighbouring store, came to the pharmacy and convinced the mother to allow her son to accompany him to the garment store for a photo shoot and session for advertisement purposes.

Two months later, a neighbouring shop owner cautioned the mother to keep her son away from the suspect after he had seen him chatting with the boy.

When the mother asked her son about what the suspect had done him, he alleged that he had been molested.

The mother reported the matter to the police after which the suspect was arrested.

Prosecutors accused the suspect of molesting the boy twice.

According to the accusation sheet, prosecutors said the suspect abused the fact that the boy was alone with him and molested him in the fitting room of the garment store. The suspect pleaded not guilty when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday.

His lawyer argued before presiding judge Urfan Omar that his client had been maliciously and unfoundedly accused of molesting the child.

The boy told prosecutors that the suspect behaved with him indecently after he took him to garment shop for a video and photo session.

“He told my mother that he wanted to take me with him to try new clothes so he could film me for an advertisement. When I went with him, he gave me new clothes to wear them. While I had been changing the clothes in the fitting room, he came there and behaved with me in an indecent manner. He touched me in an indecent way and did not make any video for the advertisement. He called me there another time and did the same thing to me … then he gave me a toy gun and warned me not to tell anyone about what he had done to me,” the boy told prosecutors.

A ruling in the case will be heard on Thursday.