Indian Man Charged for Groping Woman in Dubai

An Indian man in Dubai was slapped with molestation charges after a Filipino woman accused him of inappropriately touching her.  

The woman stated that the 30-year-old Indian man took her by surprise and inappropriately touched her and ran away from the scene right after, according to a report in Khaleej Times.   

The man, who works as a driver, denied all the charges at the Dubai court, saying that the touch happened by mistake. The 25-year-old waitress told the court that she did not know the man prior to the alleged incident. A case has been registered at the Bur Dubai police station. The court will announce a ruling on Oct. 11, the report added. 

“It was at 1.20 am on Aug. 3. I was near a restaurant and was about to go to a supermarket. My friend was with me. There were a group of five to six men who were coming in the opposite way. One of them groped me intentionally. I yelled at him, but he then replied in a very abusive and vulgar manner,” the publication quoted the woman as saying in the complaint. Further, the woman said that the man laughed after the incident and left, but “I followed them and kept screaming until an African man came and restrained the defendant,” the complaint added.  

The woman also said that she did not know what could have prompted the man to act in such a way as she had not provoked him in any way.  

Another woman who was accompanying the plaintiff said that the group of men accompanying the accused had nothing to do with the incident.  

Laws of sexual nature are punished with hefty fines or long-term imprisonment or even deportation in Dubai, the publication said.  

More than 80 percent of the UAE’s population is made up of foreigners. It is home to an estimated 2.8 million Indian emigrants, the largest expatriate community in the country, according to a previous PTI report. The country remained the most attractive destination for Indian workers in 2017, with 149,962 people getting jobs there, according to data released by the Ministry of External Affairs, Overseas Employment division earlier this year.