Mumbai, Apr 1 (Mid-day) : A 43-year-old Jharkhand-based businessman was arrested by the Sahar police for molesting a woman while flying on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Brazil to Mumbai yesterday. The woman, who was travelling with her husband and son, approached the airport authorities after the plane touched down last morning at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and filed a complaint, accusing the businessman of outraging her modesty. “The woman, along with the airport security staff, came to the police station in the morning and filed a complaint.
The accused Rajeshkumar Singh was later arrested. We have registered a case under section 354 (molestation) of the IPC. He is based in Jharkhand and has his own business,” said senior police inspector Ravindra Patil of Sahar police station. According to the police, the woman and her family, who are natives of Rajasthan, were returning from a holiday trip in Brazil. The accused was coming back from a business trip to the South American country and was assigned a seat behind the woman on the flight. Cops said that after the flight took off, the accused struck up a conversation with the woman and her husband and had complimented the woman on her good looks during the chat. The woman, in her statement, told the cops that Singh kept staring at her during the journey and had even tried touching her on a few occasions, which made her uncomfortable. According to the woman, midway during the flight, at night, she proceeded to the toilet while her husband and son were asleep. But when she stepped out, the accused was standing outside.
She told cops that Singh first made some lewd comments and then started touching her inappropriately. The woman shrieked and her scream alerted fellow passengers as well as the flight crew, who then held Singh. He was handed over to the security staff once the flight landed in Mumbai. Singh was detained and taken to the Sahar police station where the case was registered. He was produced at the Bandra holiday court and remanded in custody.