Threat: Pay $1m or I'll blow up Burj Khalifa

An Indian used another person’s mobile and sent a message to a police officer threatening to blow up Burj Khalifa, the Dubai Criminal Court heard.

According to prosecutors, the motive was to set up the other person as the one making the threats and get him sent to jail.

JFA, 38, is accused of sending a written threat via mobile, in poor English, asking for $1 million or Burj Khalifa would be blasted the next day.

The text message read: "Tomoro Burj Kaleefa blast arange no arrange 1oooooo dollar take."

Major Ahmad Juma Mohammed, 34, who received the text message on his mobile phone said that the message was not clear but “I could understand that Burj Khalifa will be exploded if $1m was not paid. Letter ‘o’ was used instead of zero.

“I immediately notified the Operations Room and was asked to forward the message, so I did,” he testified.

Investigating the case, a 35-year old Pakistani barman in Panorama Hotel, testified that four months ago a person named Chaudry stopped coming to the night club. He asked JFA about him.

"JFA told me that he did not know anything about Chaudry. One day a relative of Chaudry called Zafar came so I asked him about Chaudry. Zafar told me that Chaudry was in jail for a case he did not know about.

“When I saw JFA again, I told him that I heard that Chaudry was in jail and asked him about the reason. JFA confirmed the information and said that he will not be released from jail. I was surprised at what he said. Fifteen days ago, I met JFA and he started talking about himself as a big trader and that he can send Chaudry to jail once again.

"He pointed at Chaudry who was standing about 20 meters away. He told me that he had sent Chaudry to jail the first time. He told me that he had sent a text message from his mobile phone but did not say to who and for what. I told Chaudry what I heard from JFA,” he testified.

The accused denied the accusation and the court adjouirned the case until November 27.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.