DUBAI // Four gang members tied up a man with duct tape, gagged and assaulted him and left him to die, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Tuesday.
Police received a report of a dead man in a Naif flat and took a DNA sample from blood at the scene.
The four Indian defendants, aged 22 to 28, planned the burglary a few days before it happened on April 26, prosecutors said.
The 22-year-old, a salesman whose blood was found in the apartment, was arrested. He told them the other three asked him to take a part in a robbery, and they all met three days before the incident and came up with a plan, said an Emirati police lieutenant.
He said the salesman gave the names of the other three. One was arrested but the other two left the country after the burglary.
The two confessed that they went to the victim’s flat with their missing accomplices.
“The salesman said during questioning that he placed Vicks VapoRub ointment in the victim’s eyes then they restrained the man with duct tape from head to toe,” said the officer.
The victim, whose age and nationality were not mentioned, was assaulted after he removed a piece of cloth from his mouth. The men then gagged him tightly with more tape.
They fled after closing all of the windows and turning the TV up so loud that no one would hear the victim scream for help. The four then split the cash before two of them left the country.
“He told us his share was Dh10,000 and the other one Dh5,000, while he was asked by the two who fled the country to transfer their share of Dh30,000 to them in India,” the officer said.
Prosecutors said the victim suffered a fractured neck in the assault and was gagged so tightly that he eventually suffocated.
One of the two defendants who appeared in court denied a charge of premeditated murder, while the second denied aiding and abetting.
The next hearing is scheduled for August 30.
salamir@thenational.ae
