Dubai, Dec 17 (IANS): Three Indian nationals, accused of locking up 20 women and only allowing them to go out to work, were cleared of the charges by a Dubai court Tuesday.

The three men, identified by the initials of their names, SM, 41, KM, 61, and KA, 54, were acquitted by the Dubai Criminal Court of illegally locking up the employees of a Dubai hotel for more than a month, the National reported.

The court heard that the men used to take the Filipino women to a hotel at 7 a.m. where they worked as cleaners and bring them back at 8 p.m.

The Indian men claimed that they did so only to protect the women from sexual harassment.

“They would lock the door to the villa and the main entrance outside as well,” one of the women, MT, 30, was quoted as saying.

She added that a bus attendant and a guard used to keep an eye on them.

“Five days after I joined, I was told by my female co-workers that this was the system followed by the hotel management and that the women gave in because they need their jobs,” MT said.

MT said the men told them that once a month they will be taken to the market to buy things they needed.

Another worker told the court she signed a contract with the hotel on a monthly salary of 1,500 dirhams (about $400) but when she came she was given just 700 dirhams.

The workers, however, said they had not been abused physically or in any other way.

The report did not mention how the defendants were arrested and when.