DUBAI // A man has appeared before the Dubai Criminal Court accused of stealing almost Dh2 million worth of electric cables from a Nakheel construction site.
Pakistani ME, 27, denied a charge of armed robbery.
Prosecutors said that on July 25 this year, ME, assisted by a group of men, raided the site in Warsan, attacked the Pakistani security guard and tied him up.
“I was assigned to the location just five days before the incident and I have been with the company for three months only,” said 28-year-old guard ZK.
He said his job was to patrol the site on foot between 8pm and 8am every day. “At nearly 1.30am as I was patrolling the site when a car pulled over. One man stepped forward, identified himself as a CID officer and asked for my ID,” said the guard.
ZK was then attacked by five men who ripped off his uniform and used his under shirt to restrain him, covered his head with a coat and locked him in the security room.
“They held knives and told me if I moved or said a word they would cut my head off,” testified ZK.
The men then loaded a pick up truck with items from the site’s warehouse. After an hour and a half, when he could no longer hear any noise, ZK untied himself and discovered electric cables worth Dh1.979 million had been stolen.
ZK then had to walk to another site and use the guard’s mobile phone to call police as the gang had stolen his.
“Our investigations found that the defendant was involved in this incident as he had a criminal record in similar thefts, so we arrested him in a sting operation,” testified policeman AS, 39, adding that ME tried to escape arrest.
Police said he confessed to stealing the cables but did not provide them with the identities of the other men who took part in the robbery.
“He told us they sold some of the cables for Dh16,000 from which he was paid Dh1,500,” said AS.
In court ME denied a charge of armed robbery. A verdict is expected on October 21.
salamir@thenational.ae
