Dubai: An Indian national and his wife have been charged at a court in Dubai with physically assaulting the man's mother, causing her bone and rib fractures, internal bleeding and starving her to death.
The Court of First Instance was informed that the 29-year-old man and his 28-year-old wife tortured the elderly woman repeatedly. They even cut her right eye iris out and part of her other eye, the Khaleej Times reported on Wednesday.
The torture is believed to have lasted from July 2018 till October 2018. A case was registered at Al Qusais police station.
The couple denied the charge. However, they have been detained.
The case was brought to light by the couple's neighbour, who is a hospital employee.
The 54-year-old Indian witness recounted how the wife visited her at her apartment in the same building.
"She was then holding her daughter. She claimed that her mother-in-law had come from India but did not take proper care of their daughter and that the girl would often fall sick while in her care. She wanted me to look after the girl until she came back from work," the witness was quoted as saying by the paper.
About three days later, the witness spotted an elderly woman lying down in her neighbours' balcony. "That woman was almost naked with apparent burn marks on her body. I informed the security guard."
The witness then knocked on the couple's door.
"I found his mother on the floor. Her clothes were sticking to her body and she obviously was in a critical condition and needed urgent medical treatment. I called the ambulance."
The witness recalled how the mother cried and screamed of pain when the paramedics tried to carry her because of the burns she had. "The defendant remained in the flat and did not go with his mother. I told the paramedics he should go along. He went later after they talked him into it."
A Filipino paramedic, 36, recalled how he found the victim in a very bad shape in her son's flat.
"She was in awful pain. Her hands and legs were swollen and her legs bore burn marks. Her son claimed she had poured hot water on herself when we asked him about the cause of the burn injuries. He was standing far from her, apparently indifferent about her condition."
The paramedic added that the son did not help carry his mother to the ambulance while the neighbours, who were around, stepped in to help.
The forensic doctor told the prosecutor that the mother weighed just 29kg at the time of her death.
"She was tortured repeatedly over a short span of time. Burns covered 10 per cent of her body. The bone and rib fractures, internal bleeding, beating with different tools, burns, negligence and starvation have all led to the deterioration of her health condition."
A hospital certificate showed the mother died on October 31, 2018.
The trial will continue on July 3.
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