A business executive was sentenced on Thursday to seven years in prison for sexually assaulting a sleeping woman seated next to him on a Delta Air Lines flight from Dallas to Boston.
A statement from the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts said that on April 5, Deepak Jahagirdar, 55, laid a blanket over the 22-year-old woman who was returning from a vacation, unfastened her seat belt, unbuttoned her pants and assaulted her by touching her genitals.
"The woman immediately pulled Jahagirdar's hand from her pants and fled to the rear of the aircraft where she reported the assault to the flight crew," it said.
The crew alerted four U.S. Secret Service Agents who were on board the flight, returning from an assignment in Texas.
The plane was met by state police in Boston but Jahagirdar briefly tried to escape by trying to flee in the walkway between the plane and the airport.
Skin cells taken from Jahagirdar, an Arizona man whom authorities said did not know the woman, showed a "significant quantity of the victim's DNA was present on his hands" after the incident, the statement said.
After his release, Jahagirdar must pay a $25,000 fine and be supervised by authorities for two years.
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