DUBAI // Nine men posed as police, kidnapped a company representative and stole more than Dh140,000, a court heard this morning.
All denied the charges.
SH, 24, an Emirati, told the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance he was not involved in the case at all and the alleged victim did not know him.
YK, 24, and ZH, 22, both Pakistanis; and MY, 22, TA, 25, MA, 25, and NA, 27, all Bangladeshis, denied charges of kidnapping, posing as Criminal Investigation Department officers, stealing money and taking a mobile phone.
SM, 25, from Bangladesh and RW, 29, from Pakistan were separately charged with aiding and abetting in the crime. They also denied the charges.
The 30-year-old victim told prosecutors that about 5pm on March 9, his employer sent him to collect Dh141,653. But on his way back to the office, he said, three of the men, all wearing kandouras, stopped him and claimed to be CID officers.
They asked him for his ID but before he could remove it from his wallet, they threw him into a car and took his mobile phone, records show.
He said he was taken to a sandy lot, where the men rubbed a burning substance in his eyes, stole the money, and fled. He managed to write down their car's licence plate number.
"I saw a man nearby cleaning his car and asked to use his phone to call my company, which called the police," he said in records.
The nine men were arrested while trying to rob another man, a police lieutenant testified.
The next hearing will be on November 13.
salamir@thenational.ae