Dubai: A clerk has been jailed for three months for groping a schoolgirl in the lift of the building where she lived.
The teenaged Indian girl returned home from school around 12.30pm when the 24-year-old Pakistani clerk walked in to the lift behind her in March.
The clerk pressed the second-floor button and when the lift started moving up, he came close to the girl, grabbed her nametag, and tried to read her name but she pulled herself away from him.
Once the lift door opened, the 24-year-old clerk groped the girl before she ran towards her house and told her parents about the incident.
The parents called the police.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the defendant of molesting the schoolgirl.
The accused pleaded not guilty.
According to Thursday’s ruling, presiding judge Urfan Omar said the accused will be deported after serving his punishment.
The girl testified that the accused walked in to the lift behind her.
“Once we were inside the lift, I pressed the fourth-floor button and the suspect for second floor. When the lift’s door opened on the second floor, the accused did not walk out or move. He told me that he had pressed the wrong button … and said that he was also heading to the fourth floor. He then grabbed my nametag to read my name, but I pulled myself backwards. Then he groped me once I walked out of the lift … I did not respond and continued walking towards my flat before he called my name in English. I did not turn and told my parents about the incident,” she told prosecutors.
The girl identified the defendant at the police line-up three times.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
