15 years in Dubai jail for man who strangled colleague over Dh600 debt

Indian was caught after his company car passed through a Salik gate away from its normal route.

DUBAI // A man who strangled his co-worker to death over a Dh600 debt and was caught after his company car passed a Salik gate outside its normal work route, was on Wednesday jailed for 15 years.

Dubai Criminal Court convicted Indian K F, 31, of the premeditated murder of compatriot Jeyaraman Kronaniti. The court heard K F punched Kronaniti several times in the head before strangling him and dumping his body in a deserted area along the Dubai-Al Ain Road on October 12, 2013.

K F denied the charge in court last September.

Emirati policeman K A, 27, said the partly decomposed body of the 40-year-old victim was found several days after his death.

“His ID card was on him, which helped us know who he was and where he worked, so we started investigating with his colleagues, who said that they were looking for him,” the officer said.

Investigations revealed that all the company’s workers used public transport to and from work, except for the defendant, who was driving a company car.

“We checked the car’s trips in the previous few days and found that it had a particular daily route but, on October 12, the day on which the deceased disappeared, it had taken a different route and passed under a Salik gate that it doesn’t usually take, so we suspected that he might be involved in the murder somehow,” K A said.

The defendant claimed the victim had asked him for a lift to Al Ain but that he had taken him only as far as Dubai Outlet Mall.

Police lieutenant H H said: “He confessed to killing the man after the two had had a fight. He said that, on the way, the deceased had asked him to stop on the side of the road because he needed to relieve himself.

“The defendant stopped near some trees and, as the victim stood a bit away, he started asking him about Dh600 he had once lent him. The victim got furious and assaulted K F who, in return, assaulted the man back and sat on his chest then strangled him. When he found him dead, he dragged his body and threw it among some trees, then left.”

The lieutenant said K F slept in the car overnight and then returned to the room he rented the next morning.

The victim’s mobile phone was found in K F’s room. He confessed to strangling Kronaniti.

He will be deported after the completion of his sentence.