A Louisiana resident was arrested after allegedly groping and kissing a fellow passenger on a flight from Houston to Newark, NJ on Sunday. WTF is it about pervs and sleeping women on flights to Newark?
According to U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, Devender Singh, 61, was sitting in the middle seat next to a woman who was in the window seat. They did not know each other. During the flight, the woman fell asleep and prosecutors say that she woke up to find Singh kissing her face and his hand in her shirt. Singh was also allegedly touching his exposed penis.
The female passenger got up, prosecutors say, and pushed him off, telling him to get away. (Singh apparently zipped up, got up and went to the restroom.) Then the woman went to the back of the plane, informing a flight crew member of the incident and asking for police.
Singh, an Indian national who lives in Baton Rouge, was arrested by the FBI upon arrival and arraigned yesterday. He faces two years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. Last year, Bawer Aksal, a NJ resident, was convicted of molesting a sleeping woman on a flight to Newark; he was sentenced to eight years in prison.
As for why the U.S. Attorney is handling this: "The federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over all sexual abuse cases that occur on aircraft in flight in the United States."
