Devender Singh, 62, faces 2 years in jail, $250,000 fine.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW YORK: Devender Singh, 62, an Indian national who lives in Louisiana, has pleaded guilty to charges of sexually touching a sleeping woman sitting next to him on a United Airlines flight, according to federal prosecutors in New Jersey.
Singh pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge of abusive sexual contact, reported the Associated Press. He faces up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he’s sentenced October 23.
Prosecutors say Singh was seated next to the woman, who occupied a window seat on the United Airlines flight from Houston to Newark Liberty International Airport. The woman did not know Singh.
While the plane was in the air, the woman fell asleep. Prosecutors say she awoke to find Singh kissing her face with his hand inside her shirt, and he was touching himself in a sexual manner, with his private parts exposed.
After pushing Singh off of her and telling him to get away, the woman went to the back of the plane and told a flight crew member what had happened, asking that the police be present when the plane landed, said the AP report.
The federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over all sexual abuse cases that occur on aircraft in flight in the United States.
Last April, in a similar case, another man of Indian origin, living in Virginia, Saurabh Agarwal, then 39, was arrested for allegedly molesting a sleeping female passenger on an American Airlines flight en route from Miami to Regan National Airport in Virginia, reported the Smoking Gun.
The woman, when she awoke, had found Agarwal “hugging her body, with his hand inside her bra, fondling her breast.”
The woman, who pretended to be asleep as she said she was scared of Agarwal, had suffered more abuse as Agarwal touched her inappropriately during the course of the flight. Later, she had complained to the cabin staff and Agarwal was arrested on the flight itself by federal air marshals on board.
2 Comments
Rape goes virel … every minute a girl is raped in India!
useless