DUBAI // Two students were stabbed and almost killed after trying to stop a gang from assaulting and robbing an elderly man in the street, a court heard.
Indian sales executive O K, 20, denied a charge of attempted murder at Dubai Criminal Court where he claimed he had seen the two students fighting each other with knives.
“I interfered to stop them, I didn’t try to kill them,” he said.
Prosecutors said O K, along with A M and S M, whose ages were not given, and another man who remains at large, were drunk when they attacked the elderly man on September 27 last year.
“My friend and I tried to help the old man. O K and his friends started beating both of us, punching and kicking us all over before one of them grabbed a large rock and hit me repeatedly with it on the head, then another stabbed me in my back and side and I fainted,” said student A G, 23, from India.
His compatriot, S P, 23, said that two of the gang assaulted A G while the other two attacked him. “I saw the two as they stabbed me with knives in several places in my body, I bled heavily then fainted.”
It was not clear in records who called the police, but when officers arrived at the scene the two students were in a critical condition.
“They were bleeding heavily and in very bad condition, A G could barely speak,” said policeman H H, 28, from Sudan.
They were taken to hospital where they underwent emergency surgery.
Officers from Al Refaa station arrested O K, A M and S M.
In records, A M and S M, who were referred to the Juvenile Court because of their age, said they had been drinking alcohol when they saw the old man and decided to assault and rob him. “The two students saw us and tried to help the man so we attacked them,” A M said.
The trio denied stabbing the students and blamed the fourth member of the gang, insisting they had only assaulted the two Indians.
At Dubai Criminal Court on Monday, the case was referred back to public prosecution. No reason was given for the ruling.
tzriqat@thenational.ae
