Dubai: A heavy machine operator has been accused of molesting a seven-year-old boy by hugging and kissing him against his will while he was playing near his machine.
The 51-year-old Pakistani operator was said to have lured the Indian boy to come towards him and stand behind the arm of the heavy machine where he hugged and kissed him in January.
According to records, when the boy’s mother saw her son washing his hands and face and asked him about it, the boy told her what had happened.
The mother reported the matter to the police who apprehended the operator.
Prosecutors accused the Pakistani suspect of molesting the boy.
The suspect strongly refuted the accusation of molesting the boy when he pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Monday.
“I did not molest the boy … I had no criminal intention. I just gave him a fatherly kiss,” the suspect told presiding judge Urfan Omar.
When asked by the presiding judge if he knew the boy, the Pakistani suspect replied: “He came to me in an open parking area where I had parked the heavy machine. He told me that he wanted to climb up on its top and take a picture. When he climbed up, I was scared that he might fall down. So I pulled him down and kissed him on his head in a fatherly way … I treated him like my own son.”
He also provided the court with a written waiver that he obtained from the boy’s father.
The Indian mother told to prosecutors that her son returned home and went straight to the washroom.
“He had been playing outside in a nearby park and when he returned he went directly to the washroom. He washed his face and his lips … when I asked him why he did so, he told me that someone named uncle kissed him and told him not to tell anyone. I told my husband what had happened and he reported the police,” she testified to prosecutors.
A police sergeant claimed to prosecutors that the suspect was apprehended two hours after the incident when he arrived to the spot where his heavy machine had been parked.
A ruling will be heard on February 27.
