Khaleej Times

Man gets 3-year term for molesting 2 sisters

- Sherouk Zakaria sherouk@khaleejtim­es.com

dubai — An elderly man was sentenced to three months in jail and deportatio­n for molesting two young sisters.

The 69-year-old Indian businessma­n man allegedly molested two sisters aged eight and 10 near an elevator in the building where they stayed on different occasions.

The Indian businessma­n had denied the molestatio­n charge when he stood trial before the Dubai Court of First Instance on June 3.

The girls’ Indian father, 46, said his 10-year-old daughter came to him on the day of the incident, looking scared.

“It was around 5.45pm. She told me that when she came back from school at 2pm, an elderly man hugged her from behind, then turned her by force to face him and kissed her on the cheek. He also touched her inappropri­ately. Even though she tried to stay away from him, he pulled her back to him and kissed her again.”

The father went down to the lobby and talked to the receptioni­st.“He said he was not around when the incident took place. But as he was showing me the CCTV footage,

a man walked in and my daughter pointed at him as the suspect who molested her.”

The elderly man denied the girl’s accusation­s in front of the father, claiming the girl was like his daughter and he only kissed her on the forehead.

However, as he saw the surveillan­ce cameras footage, he apologised for what he did and remained silent. The police took him into custody shortly later. The police seized the relevant CCTV recordings.

According to court records, the accused admitted to investigat­ors that he hugged the girl, kissed and inappropri­ately touched her for about 30 seconds when he spotted her alone near the elevator. He also confessed he had kissed her younger sister on the cheek about one month earlier.The ruling is subject to appeal within 15 days.

She (his daughter) told me that when she came back from school at 2pm, an elderly man hugged her from behind, then turned her by force to face him and kissed her on the cheek.”

Indian businessma­n, father

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