Nagpur, Oct 11 (IANS): An engineer from Pune was arrested for allegedly making "lewd" gestures and masturbating before a woman co-passenger onboard a Pune-Nagpur flight, officials said.

The accused, identified as Feroze Sheikh, 32, targetted the 40-year old woman teacher mid-air, when she was flying to Nagpur to attend her father’s funeral in Chandrapur late on Monday.

After the flight landed at the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, the accused tried to escape, but the woman alerted the CISF, the airline crew and ground staffer who stopped him and took him to the Sonegaon Police Station.

During the flight, the woman who had dozed off after take-off, was suddenly jolted awake and saw Sheikh exposing his private parts and scratching, nudging her and making lewd gestures at her.

He was arrested by the police on charges of sexual harassment, molestation, outraging a woman’s modesty, insult, and sent to 14 days judicial custody, said an official of Sonegaon Police Station.

The accused has reportedly applied for bail even as further investigations are underway, said the official.