Shakeela Saraswathi has the last laugh on Jacob Thomas.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: An Indian American man in Queens, New York, thought he had found a novel way to take revenge on his ex-wife who was traveling to America from India, but instead now finds himself in trouble with the law enforcement here, while his ex-wife has the last laugh.
Jacob Thomas, 51, a retired maintenance supervisor for New York City Transit, called the 911 emergency line twice on July 5 and ‘notified’ that a woman traveling on the Qatar Airways flight to the John F Kennedy Airport in New York, named Shakeela Saraswathi, was a “terrorist” involved in a “plot,” and that she was traveling with a “fake visa”, reported the Daily News.
Since any call like this is taken seriously, as it ought to be, and in a post-911 world, precaution is better than cure, the call was treated with all due respect and urgency, and when Saraswathi got off the flight, she was immediately surrounded by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and taken in for questioning.
The interrogation, however, made it clear that she was a harmless passenger, with no ties to any terrorist activities, and a victim of a vicious prank.
The FBI got suspicious of the caller himself, and when the two calls were traced, it was revealed to be made by Thomas, who it turns out was the ex-husband of Saraswathi, and was apparently furious that she was visiting the US. He thought this was an easy way to get her into trouble and make her life miserable.
Now, it’s Jacob’s turn to face the wrath of the courts and law enforcement.
A Brooklyn Federal Court freed Jacob on a $50,000 bond co-signed by his current wife and his son, but he would have to seek mental health treatment as a condition of his release.