DUBAI // A jilted lover who tried to take his own life after stabbing his girlfriend for dumping him was today sentenced to two months in prison for having consensual sex and attempting suicide.
The defendant, JK, 32, from India, was earlier sentenced to three years by the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance for attempted murder after he stabbed his girlfriend in the abdomen with a kitchen knife and left her to bleed to death.
He drank half a litre of pesticide at the Sharaf El Din residential building in Al Nahda on July 5 last year after stabbing the woman.
Records show JK converted from Hinduism to Islam so he could marry NB, 40, a Sri Lankan maid.
Major JS, 40, a Dubai Police detective, testified that JK had been in a relationship with the maid since 2008 and that the pair had been having sex.
NB was also sentenced to a month in prison for having sex outside wedlock and another month for working for an employer other than her sponsor.
Records showed JK took a knife and a bottle filled with pesticide and headed to the apartment where NB worked.
As she responded to the door bell, he stabbed her when she opened the door, took the poison then held her in his arms, records show.
AM, 38, an American housewife who lived in the building, testified that her mother had called her after she saw a man on the floor holding NB's hands while NB tried to get loose as she bled profusely.
The maid said JK had repeatedly threatened her after she broke off their relationship. "He would come and tell me he would kill me whenever I left the building to go to the supermarket," she said.
The pair will be deported after they complete their jail terms.
MM, 38, Indian businessman for whom NB had worked, was also fined Dh50,000 for hiring a maid who was fleeing from her sponsor.
salamir@thenational.ae
