Man jailed over selfie row in a Dubai hotel

Indian businessman Mahendra Yadav

A professional water sports racer has been sentenced to two years in jail for killing a man in a row over a selfie at a Dubai hotel.

The Emirati, 22, punched Mahendran Yadav, 45, in the head twice on August 9 last year at a cafe in a Dubai Marina hotel, Dubai Court of First Instance heard.

Yadav, the managing partner of Emirates Homes Real Estate Brokers, later died in hospital.

He had been struck during a row about photographs he took, according to a witness.

The 23-year-old Indian waiter testified that the victim was sitting and taking pictures with friends while the accused was at a table nearby with a woman.

He said an argument broke out when the accused asked Yadav to stop taking pictures, but he refused.

The court heard that the accused then punched the victim twice in the head.

“I tried to wake him up with water but he was unconscious,” the waiter told the court.

A 31-year-old Canadian businessman, who was with the victim during the incident, testified: “We don’t know the reason behind the assault and all of the pictures were group pictures… we didn’t take pictures of the suspect or the girl who was sitting with him,” he said.

The defendant’s lawyer had claimed his client did not cause the death, and that Yadav suffered brain damage when he fell from a trolley as he was rushed to an ambulance.

He told the judge that paramedics knocked him off the trolley while they were transferring him to the ambulance.

The judge did not accept this argument. The verdict can be appealed by either side within 15 days.