DUBAI // Three men are accused of accidentally killing a security guard when they sprayed an apartment with pesticide, a court heard today.
The Dubai Court of Misdemeanours was told that the security guard PK was found dead in his bedroom in a building in Al Baraha, with several empty pesticide cans in the same room.
Prosecutors charged NK, 36; SL, 49; and TM, 35, all Indians who work at a pesticides company, with negligence that caused his death. TM sprayed an apartment on the third floor of PK's building on July 17, 2010, prosecutors say; however, he has been deported for visa violations while the trial is ongoing.
Residents of the building, friends of the victim and the real estate office that runs the building were worried when PK stopped answering their calls, records show.
OF, who works for the real estate office, told prosecutors that his manager ordered him to go check on PK. When he did, he found relatives and friends PK trying to break down the door to his flat.
"We looked from his window, and we saw him lying motionless on his bed," OF said, adding that they immediately called police.
Lt AK, 23, from Al Muraqqabat police station, testified that they forced their way into PK's room, which was flooded with an awful chemical smell.
"We could smell it from five meters away," AK testified.
NK told prosecutors he had dropped TM off at PK's apartment.
"We received a call from an apartment in Al Baraha area near Danielo restaurant, but I did not enter the flat, I just drove TM," he said.
TM was arrested and prosecutors say he had violated residency regulations for seven years.
TM said he had not mixed any of the pesticides and did not see PK in the flat, whose other residents he had asked to leave for four hours.
The two other men also denied any responsibility for PK's death and said their company worked according to municipality safety regulations.
A forensics report found traces of poisonous pesticides in PK's body.
The next hearing will be on September 5.
salamir@thenational.ae