Clerk jailed for groping housewife on bus

Hamza M Sengendo, Staff Reporter

DUBAI: A clerk who slipped his hand between a bus’s seat and window to repeatedly touch a housewife in front of him has been incarcerated for six months.

The Asian defendant, 30, on spotting the Indian housewife, 28, entering at around 4:30pm waited until she took a seat. He changed his seat and took the one behind her. The bus was moving when he started touching.

She shouted at him. He dashed out at the next stop. The incident happened on Sept.26. Police arrested him later. He told a police lieutenant that he failed to control himself because she was “so beautiful.”

The Dubai Criminal Court has sentenced him to six months behind bars to be followed by deportation. The Dubai Appeals Court is yet to set the date for the first hearing in the case.

On the record, the woman entered the bus at Union Metro Station. The first deck was congested. She climbed to the upper deck where the defendant was. He kept eyes on her as she walked through the aisle.

“I supposed he knew me. I was astonished to see him leaving his seat and heading towards the rear. The bus moved. I was by the window watching streets when I felt something pressing on my chest from the left.

“I did not understand what happened. I was sure there was no one on the seat right behind me. All of a sudden, something squeezed me again on the same place. I bent to see. I was stunned to see a hand near my chest.

“The hand squeezed me again. I jumped out of the seat, shouted and asked what he was doing. He kept mum, with his hand still in the gap between the seat and window. He failed to draw it away. I continued shouting.”

She threatened to contact the police if he did not move to another seat.

He descended to the lower deck and made his way through wondering commuters. She hurried to stop him from fleeing but he dashed out.

“At around 4:45pm on Oct.30 I was at the metro station waiting for the bus to take me to Nahdah near my Sharjah home when I spotted him and alerted the police,” she said, adding that he confessed upon his arrest.

An Indian commuter testified, “I heard her screaming that ‘How dare you touch my chest?’ The defendant looked perplexed and his face reddened. I heard her telling the police that he touched her chest thrice.”