Indian held 'guilty' of molesting air stewardess on Cochin-S'pore flight

SINGAPORE: A 39-year-old Indian man was found guilty on Monday of molesting an air stewardess on a flight from Cochin to Singapore in 2017, according to a media report.

Vijayan Mathan Gopal, who is a Singapore permanent resident, was convicted of three counts of outraging the modesty of the 22-year-old Scoot air stewardess on November 2, 2017, Channel News Asia reported.

He had held her right arm and touched her face, cupped her face with his hands, placed his hand on her thigh and touched her buttock.

The victim, whose identity is protected by gag order, gave evidence during the trial that she did not know the man before he boarded the plane that day.

Vijayan was the last one to board the Singapore-controlled aircraft and smelled strongly of alcohol, and his pants were unzipped, the stewardess told the court.

However, he was able to walk to his seat, listen to her and pass her his boarding pass.

Soon after the plane took off, the victim noticed that Vijayan was having a dispute with another air stewardess at his aisle seat.

The victim, who was in charge of the cabin crew, approached the pair and discovered that they were arguing as Vijayan did not want to pay after ordering some food and red wine.

She appeased the man by agreeing to serve him his food before payment was made, against Scoot's policy, but Vijayan rejected the food, claiming the other stewardess was rude to him.

The victim assigned a steward to attend to Vijayan while she gave her attention to a medical emergency with a passenger who was feeling faint and lacked oxygen.

While this was ongoing, Vijayan repeatedly pressed the call light button asking for assistance and wanted the victim to attend to him.

After a nurse came forward to help the sick passenger, the victim went to Vijayan and told him firmly not to press the call light

again.