Indian man in Dubai jailed for refusing to return Rs 1.28 cr accidentally transferred to him
An Indian man in the UAE was sentenced to a month in jail for refusing to return AED 570,000 (roughly 1.28 crore), which was mistakenly transferred to his bank account by a medical trading company in October 2021, reported The National Newspaper.
According to a recent decision made by the Dubai Criminal Court, the Indian man has been ordered to pay the same amount in fines and will be deported once his sentence is complete.
As per the report, the medical trading company accidentally transferred the AED 570,000 to the man instead of the intended recipient, who was a business client.
“We discovered the transfer was done to an account similar to the supplier’s account without checking the details,” the official was quoted as saying.
The Indian man acknowledged receiving a transfer notification for the deposited amount, but he declined to say where the funds originated.
“I was surprised when Dh 570,000 was deposited in my bank account. I paid for my rent and expenses,” the report quoted the accused as saying.
Even though they were aware that the funds had been inadvertently transferred, the accused refused to reimburse the bank.
“A company asked me to return the money, but I refused because I was unsure if the money belonged to them. They asked me several times,” the report quoted him as saying.
After the man refused to return the money and his account was frozen, the company reported the incident to Dubai’s Al Raffa police station, but the money was not recovered.
If the accused had taken the money out of his account and deposited it somewhere else, that fact was not made known.
According to the report, Dubai Public Prosecution accused him of obtaining the money unlawfully. He has now appealed against the verdict, and a hearing is expected next month.
