Student calls cops after driver assaults him

dubai — A 20-year-old student called the Dubai Police after a driver allegedly assaulted him in his vehicle, the Dubai Court of First Instance has heard. According to public prosecution records, the 40-year-old Sudanese bus driver stopped for the Bangladeshi student, offering him a ride.

After he asked him to sit in the front, the driver molested him and drove to an isolated industrial location where he tried to force himself on him. The victim was able to call the police emergency hotline and a patrol car soon arrived and apprehended the defendant.

The driver denied charges of molestation and attempted sexual assault in court.

The victim said that at 2.50pm on November 20 last year, he was waiting for a bus in Al Warsan when the defendant stopped for him in a private car. “He insisted to drop me at a nearby bus stop and invited me to sit in the front. He claimed he did not want to be suspected of illegal car-pooling.”

The student said that the driver touched his thigh and claimed he was joking when he was rebuffed.

However, the student panicked when he saw the accused driving away. “I felt scared when he told me not to worry when I pointed out that he was taking a road away from the bus stop. I dialed the police number and kept the line open without letting him notice. He stopped his car behind a dune,” he told the public prosecution investigator.

He recounted how the driver pulled him out of the car by force and then took his trousers down while trying to sexually assault him. “I could run away from him. He then offered to drop me back. I had to accept as I forgot my bag in his vehicle. Before I stepped off, he gave me his mobile number. He sped off when he spotted a police patrol car there,” the student said.

The defendant’s DNA traces were found on the victim’s body and was arrested by the CID officers on the same day. The trial will continue on March 17.