An Indian-origin Punjabi man has been sentenced to eight months in prison after he admitted that he groped a sleeping woman in a flight from Houston to New Jersey.
The offender, Devender Singh, 62 yrs old lives in lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, pleaded guilty last month before District Judge Stanley R Chesler in Newark to an information charging him with abusive sexual contact.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Stanley Chesler also sentenced Devender Singh to two years of supervised release and ordered that he register as a sex offender.
The incident happened in March this year when Singh was travelling in a flight from Houston to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
According to court documents, Singh was seated next to a woman who occupied a window seat on a United Airlines flight from Houston to Newark. While the plane was in the air, the woman fell asleep. She awoke to find Singh kissing her face with his hand inside her shirt.
After pushing Singh off 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, the Department of Justice said.
The federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over all sexual abuse cases that occur on aircraft in flight in the United States.