Dubai, October 02: Two salesmen allegedly stole an 8.4 karat diamond ring worth Dh 1.36m from Damas jewellery firm where they used to work.
The two Syrians, both in their thirties, had been working for Damas jewellery shop as salesmen and were the ones to report about the theft on September 11 last year. They both pleaded not guilty to the theft charge in the Court of First Instance on Thursday.
As per the records presented to the court, the diamond ring went missing from the shop on September 12, 2008. “Both of them were on duty that day and they reported the incident to the management,” a jeweller stated. When the ring could not be found inside the shop, the police were informed.
One of the duo, who had just returned from leave on that day, told the management that he found a ring pad empty inside the safe and knew a ring was missing. “I started work at 11 am and finished at 5 pm and when I took charge of the shop I was told there were 62 rings,” he said.
His colleague who was on shift before him, the day before the theft was discovered, confirmed that he did make sure the ring was there when he closed the shop at the end of his work day.
However, later when he was asked questions about the ring, he claimed there had been 61 rings only and he had miscounted them. “At that point, we had our own reason to suspect him and the other salesman as they were on duty that day,” the jeweller said.
When the management tried to find out what exactly had happened by going through CCTV footage, they came to know that the camera was on the ‘play’ mode instead of ‘recording’ mode at the time of the alleged theft.
However, the camera showed that the ring was still in the safe when the first defendant finished his duty and was about to close the shop at 11 am, on the day before the theft.
“There is no way the ring could have been stolen from 11 pm to 11 am the following day. We keep the safe’s key in a nearby shop where there is an alarm system linked to the police,” the jeweller added.
He also stressed that the key could not be taken without breaking the code electronically.
He told the prosecutors that they had met with a similar incident where a ring worth Dh180,000 was lost from Graff Jewellery shop at the time when the same salesmen were on duty.
Housewife on Trial in Human
Trafficking Case
A housewife, along with two other people, allegedly lured four women to come to the UAE by promising them jobs and then forcing them into prostitutes.
The 26-year-old Bangladeshi housewife with the help of some other people, brought the women, her compatriots, from her home country by promising them jobs as housemaids. However, upon their arrival, the women were picked up from Dubai International Airport and taken to different apartments. They were allegedly held up against their will, beaten up and filmed naked and threatened that their photos would be made public if they did not agree to the demands of their ‘captors’ and work as prostitutes.
The Naif police received a complaint on May 31 from two of the ‘victims’ who appeared very tired and bore injury marks as a result of beating.
The housewife was caught by the police on July 18.
She denied exploiting the women. She was also unwilling to lead the cops to the villa where she used to carry out ‘her practices’. She is believed to have used a nickname.
The ‘victims’ identified her in a suspect parade at the police station. She pleaded not guilty to human trafficking in the Court of First Instance on Thursday. Her two accomplices, who have been allegedly abetting the crime, had previously been referred to the court.
–Agencies