Dubai, Feb 20 (IANS): A UAE-based Indian cleaner has gone on trial in Dubai after he allegedly stole as many as 86 expensive watches worth over 8.3 million dirhams ($2 million), a media report said on Thursday.

The 26-year-old cleaner, who is currently detained, is accused of stealing the valuables from a watch and jewellery shop where he worked, the Khaleej Times said in the reported.

Two Pakistani men (cousins), aged 44 and 25, both fugitives, were also on trial in absentia for possession of the stolen watches.

A complaint was filed by the shop's owner on January 6.

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"On December 25 last year, I was in one of my shops when an Indian salesman brought to my attention that a watch, worth 30,000 dirhams, was found in its box in the trash bin," the owner said in the complaint.

According to the owner, they then checked the shop's CCTV cameras which captured the cleaner taking the watch, putting it in a box and dropping it in the trash bin so he could smuggle it outside the shop later.

When the owner asked the defendant about the theft in the presence of the latter's brother who was asked to come to Dubai from India, the cleaner confessed he had stolen two watches worth 250,000 and 270,000 dirhams.

He sold each of them to a Pakistani man for Dh10,000 and claimed he was not yet paid for the second one.

During the public prosecution investigation, the defendant admitted to stealing the watches and then selling them to his two accomplices.