• Home
• /
• Crime

Cops on trial over rape, theft

A policeman, 29, and a sergeant, 26, allegedly kidnapped a woman from a cab by force and took her to a remote location where they raped and molested her, a court heard on Sunday.

According to prosecution records, the two Emirati defendants intercepted the cab after flashing out a police card and asked for the labour cards of the driver and the woman passenger, an Indonesian maid. They made the woman ride in their car after she said that her employment card was at her sponsor’s.

They allegedly stole two mobile phones and Dh750 belonging to the driver. They threatened the taxi driver that they would assault him if he informed about them.

The duo faced charges of kidnap, rape, sexual assault, forced theft in the street, threat, impersonation of public officers in the Court of First Instance. A third Emirati policeman, 25, was charged with possession of the stolen phones.

The Indian cab driver told the prosecutor that he picked the woman up from a shopping centre shortly before midnight on a day in January and was taking her to another centre in Rashidiyah.

Shortly after the pick-up, he was intercepted by a car driven by two of the defendants. The man riding in the passenger seat posed as a CID officer (Criminal Investigation Department) and asked for the labour cards of the driver and the woman passenger. As the woman said that her card was at her sponsor’s, the defendant took her by her arm by force out of the cab and made her ride with them.

When the driver told them that he knew the passenger and she was legal here he was also made to ride with them. One of the defendants drove the driver’s car. The driver was dropped somewhere in Al Muhaisna later after they stole his two mobile phones and Dh750. They told him to drive away and threatened to assault him with a stick if he reported the kidnap. The driver said he went and reported the incident because he was worried about the woman.

A police lieutenant said that the driver filed a complaint about kidnap, theft and assault at the police station around 2am that night.

The lieutenant said that through investigation they knew that the defendants had a criminal record. The first and third defendants were arrested at their workplace while the second accused was found to be suspended. He was arrested shortly later in Al Muhaisna.

A policeman quoted the woman as saying during the interrogations that two of the accused raped and sexually assaulted her in the back seat of their car in a remote location in Al Mizhar. They dropped her home after that.

mary@khaleejtimes.com