A man has been sentenced to death for the murder of an Indian couple in Dubai.
The Pakistani construction worker, 26, stabbed Hiren and Vidhi Adhiya as they slept at their home in Mirador, Arabian Ranches, on June 17, 2020. Prosecutors said he had planned to burgle the house.
He was convicted of their murder at Dubai Criminal Court on Wednesday.
Judges were told he hid outside the couple’s home for six hours before sneaking in through an unlocked patio door when the lights inside were switched off.
He had planned to steal money and jewellery he had seen when carrying out maintenance work at the house the previous December.
After taking cash from a wallet on the ground floor of the property, he went upstairs to search for more valuables.
When Hiren Adhiya, 48 awoke to the sound of his bedside drawer opening, the defendant stabbed him to death before attacking Vidhi, 40.
Forensic reports revealed Hiren was stabbed 10 times in the head, chest, abdomen and left shoulder.
His wife was stabbed 14 times in her head, neck, chest, face, ear and right arm.
Both victims were attacked in bed, with several stabs found to have penetrated their blanket.
As the assailant left the bedroom, he encountered the couple’s elder daughter, who was 18 at the time, and stabbed her in the neck.
The girl and her sister, then 13, witnessed the horrifying crime scene before the wounded daughter called police and one of her father’s friends.
Investigators found a bloody handprint on the family’s wall and a mask on the victims’ bed with blood samples matching the accused’s DNA.
The knife used in the murder was found dumped about 500 metres away from the villa.
The defendant was arrested in Sharjah a few days later.
During police and prosecution questioning, he admitted charges of premeditated murder of the couple, the attempted murder of their daughter and theft.
He said three days before the murder, his mother in Pakistan had fallen sick and he was thinking of ways to provide her with money.
When he appeared in court in November 2020, he changed his plea and denied all charges.
Both daughters and their deceased father’s friend testified before court in February last year.
The older daughter told judges that at about 1.30am that day, she heard cries for help coming from her parents’ bedroom and used her mobile phone torch to see what was happening upstairs.
“I met him at the room’s door and he stabbed me at sight, but I kicked him before he fled,” she told judges.
The deceased’s father’s friend said the older daughter called him at about 2am and was screaming hysterically.
“She was screaming that her mother was dead and her father was still moving and that she was stabbed too,” he said in court.
“I thought she had a nightmare at first but when my wife and I arrived at the villa we saw police and an ambulance.”
Prosecutors sought the death penalty against the defendant.
They said the crime was premeditated and planned.
The verdict can be appealed within 15 days.
