Life sentence upheld for stabbing sleeping roommate

The Dubai Court of Appeal upheld the life in jail sentence awarded to a jobless Bangladeshi who stabbed his roommate and compatriot to death over a debt of Dh3,000.

The court also upheld the deportation order of the 28-year-old convict TI after serving his term.

According to the records, on January 17, 2013, TI came to the room and when he saw the victim sleeping, he went to the kitchen and took a knife with which he stabbed him thrice. When the victim woke up, he pushed him into the bathroom where he died of severe bleeding. He left the knife behind and asked the victim’s roommate to flee the scene, according to the records.

TI stabbed his roommate MH trice. He wanted to kill him after he learnt that MH was preparing to leave the UAE without paying him the Dh3,000 that the victim owed him.

After stabbing MH, the accused ran away from the accommodation, a villa in Hor Al Anz.

However, the records mentioned that the attacker had called the original tenant of the villa, who was subletting rooms to workers, after running away from the scene, MS, 38, Pakistani businessman, told the police.

“On January 17 at around 7.30pm, while I was in Deira with HR, a friend, I received a call from TI who was one of the tenants of the villa, telling me about a fight in the villa that ended in murder. He asked me to come to the villa.

“I asked him to call the police, but he refused and hung up. I rushed to the villa and called TI who told me that he is in Sharjah. When I asked him to come to the villa, he again hung up,” said MS.

One of the workers, ‘K’, told the ‘landlord’ that an assault took place in room No 17.

“I went upstairs and the room’s door was open but no one was in. I entered the bathroom and saw a man lying on the floor bleeding severely from his belly. I left because I am a cardiac patient and cannot bear to see such scenes,” K said.

His friend HR, 32, Pakistani driver made corroborative testimonies and said that he checked the victim and found out he was dead.

Police suspected TI who informed the sub-letter about the crime and disappeared.

Police learnt that the suspect is in touch with a Bangladeshi taxi driver.

Police summoned the taxi driver, MZ, 45, Bangladeshi, and asked him about TI.

The driver admitted that TI did call him and asked him to arrange him a driver who could take him to Oman.

“I told him that I don’t know anyone and when I asked him why he wanted to flee, he hung up. I thought that he may be a visa violator and that was why he wanted to flee,” said MZ.

However, police asked the taxi driver to call TI and inform him that he had found him a driver who could take him to Oman.

The driver called TI and told him that he had found him a driver who will pick him from Al Khawaneej area of Dubai.

At around 2am, on January 20, police officers accompanied the taxi driver to Al Khawaneej and arrested TI who was sitting in a taxi, waiting for his friend’s arrival.

TI admitted before the police that he stabbed his roommate as the latter was planning to leave the UAE without paying him the Dh3,000 he had lent him.

Police also arrested the victim’s roommate who was hiding in Umm Al Quwain.

The latter denied any connection with the crime and told the police that he ran away as he got scared after the man was killed in his room.

Forensic reported that the three stabs which victim received were fatal and that there were no other injuries of defensive nature, indicating that the victim was taken by surprise while sleeping.

The Dubai Prosecution accused only TI of premeditated murder.
 

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