According to the Dubai General Directorate for Residency and Foreigners Affairs, Riyaz has no criminal record at all.

“When I was arrested I expected nothing more than being wrongly identified and that police will sort out the case but instead, I was arrested and taken to jail,” he said.

 “I told police that I was a 16-year-old studying at school in India when the man committed his crimes. The deported man was 42-years-old and I'm only 27.”

Now out on bail, the “case is transferred to public prosecution and I'm released on bail. I never thought I would be sitting in jail, especially for something I knew for sure I didn't do,” he said. “Police questioned me, they ran [my] fingerprints...I was clueless...I was texting my uncle who lives in Al Ain to help me out while it was going on.”

Riyaz said he came to the UAE for the first time on March 20 and joined work as an information system consultant in Abu Dhabi on the same day.