Malé, Maldives – Charges against a foreign worker of a Malé shop for groping a female shopper have been dropped after the Criminal Court declared today that the case lacks sufficient evidence.
The man accused of groping the shopper’s breasts on 30th August, 2020 is a Bangladeshi man named Mohamed Shakeel Hossein.
The woman is said to have gone to the shop to purchase chillis and asked the man in question, who works at the shop to assist her in getting some chillis from the fridge. The man is then said to have gone over to the fridge and groped the woman.
The state provided three witnesses against the accused – the woman’s sister, and the two police officers who attended the scene.
According to the woman, her younger sister was present in the shop at the time of the incident. However, the sister has refused to testify and further said that as the event took place a significantly long time ago, she does not recall the event clearly.
The two police officers stated that when they attended the complaint at the shop, both the man and woman were present at the shop, but that although CCTV cameras were installed in the shop, they did not confirm whether they were functional at the time, after the accused told the officers that the cameras were malfunctioning.
Due to this, the court decided that as there are no eye witnesses as well as any supporting evidences or proof, it is not possible to convict the accused.
