A man accused of breaking the window of a Mercedes was held prisoner for seven or eight hours and tortured, a jury heard on Tuesday, December 6, 2022.
He was punched, beaten with a baseball bat and a machete and branded with the machete that had been heated up, it was alleged.
Prosecutor Francis Lloyd told Luton Crown Court the victim was in Ash Road, Luton at half past twelve in the afternoon when he was approached by Safed Rafiq who said: “It was you all along.”
The victim said he did not know what he was talking about, but later learned he was being accused of smashing the window of Idnan Akbar’s Mercedes.
He was taken to an upstairs room of a crack house in Ash Road where it was alleged three defendants Safed Rafiq, Idnan Akbar and Dawud Safeen were, along with at least one other person, said to have attacked him.
When he denied he had broken the window they carried on beating him up. Mr Lloyd said the police arrived after one of the other people in the house called them.
Four defendants are on trial:
Safed Rafiq, aged 37, Claremont Road, Luton;
Dawud Safeen, aged 25, of Lyvelly Gardens, Peterborough
and Idnan Akbar, 32, of Blenheim Crescent, Luton.
All deny false imprisonment and causing grievous bodily harm on November 29, 2021.
Safed Rafiq and Naveed Rafiq, 32, also of Claremont Road, Luton deny intimidation on January 5, 2020 by using threats of violence to the victim to persuade him to attend Luton police station to withdraw a statement.
Case proceeding