Indian accountant charged with burning currency in UAE

The 35-year-old Indian, identified only as S.T., has been accused of arson and theft and causing intentional damage and loss to the taxi company, a newspaper report said.
According to the report, jail wardens failed to produce S.T before the Dubai Court of First Instance today. Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout adjourned the hearing until December 27 so that the suspect can be produced in court.

Prosecutors claimed that S.T. deliberately set on fire the money bag which contained USD 68,064 and stole the rest. He is also charged with causing intentional damage and financial loss to the company.

The company's manager, who also happened to be an Indian, testified that one of the employees informed him over the phone that the accounting office was on fire.
The Dubai Police criminal laboratory report confirmed that the fire was started deliberately.
"I rushed to the company's premises to check what happened. We had left nearly half a million dirhams in a money bag which we kept inside a wooden cupboard. The money was our cabbie drivers' daily revenues. I discovered that half of the money got stolen and the remaining half was burnt," the manager claimed.

The accused had set on fire a piece of paper and put it inside the money bag, said the report.Prosecution records referred to S.T. admitting that he decided to steal the money which was recovered from his brother. The defendant alleged to prosecutors that he hide the stolen money in a bag which he kept with his brother.