It has become an international incident that reflects terribly on Indians in general and Indian men in particular. 34-year-old Prabhu Ramamoorthy is an Indian national in the United States on a temporary visa. He has been arrested on charges of aggravated sexual abuse and is in custody without bail currently. He is charged with sexual assault of a 22-year-old female passenger in the seat next to him with his own wife seated on a seat on the other side.
The incident occurred on a Spirit Airlines flight from Las on 3rd January 2018. A 22-year-old woman seated at the window seat woke up to find her shirt and pants unbuttoned and a strange man's hand inside her pants. She reported the incident to the flight attendants who kept her in the rear of the plane for the rest of the flight.
The man responsible, Prabhu Ramamoorthy was arrested on landing. This repulsive behaviour was carried out with Ramamoorthy’s wife in the seat right next to his. Ramamoorthy and his wife gave conflicting reports about his having taken a pill and fallen into ‘deep sleep’. However, he admitted that he had tried to digitally penetrate the woman's private parts, undid her bra and unzipped her pants.
This is hardly the first time such an incident has occurred. 62-year-old Indian man – Devender Singh was found guilty of groping of a woman on a flight from Houston to Newark in March 2014. A 16-year-old was groped by an Indian doctor named Vijakumar Krishnappa in July last year on board a Jersey-bound United Airlines flight.
Saranjeet Bassi, 29 is a father of three. He was flying on Qatar Airways to Heathrow from his home in India when he sexually assaulted his victim. Another Indian man; 40 years old was travelling on an Air India flight from Mumbai to Newark groped a sleeping woman and was then handed over to the police. He later wrote a 6-page apology letter to the victim asking to be forgiven.
Sexually abusing sleeping female passengers in planes appears to be a shockingly common occurrence. So what is the legal recourse here? Things are particularly difficult for women because they often tend to be disbelieved, shamed and ridiculed when they report the trauma that they suffered.
Witness the support and collusion of Ramamoorthy’s wife in the most recent incident. We can also recall the recent incident involving Zahira Wasim (who starred in Dangal and Secret Superstar). The 17-year-old suffered an insensitive and hideous backlash when she reported her ordeal on board a Vistara flight in December 2017; reactions ranging from victim shaming to outright disbelief and even charges of being publicity hungry. The self-absolving statement of the attacker Vikas Sachdeva and his wife made many indulge in victim-shaming and question the veracity of Wasim’s account and the ordeal she endured.
The important thing here is to report the incident to the flight attendants or to the airport authorities. If a photo or video can be recorded, so much the better; though this is in no way a necessity. Ideally, it should be done at the earliest. This is not to say that a victim who feels unable to do it right at the time of the incident or immediately thereafter relinquishes any of her right to proceed against the assaulter/abuser/attacker. Nor can this weaken her case nor does it mean that she or he relinquished her right to prosecute in any way or to any degree. She (or he) can do so later; as and when she feels able and gathers the courage to report her attacker.
The victim is entitled to file a complaint and proceed against the attacker in accordance with the law. The nature of proceedings and the quantum of punishment may be decided based on the jurisdiction that would apply in each case. If the incident happened in India (as in the case of Zahira Wasim); Indian laws would apply. However, for overseas passengers, the applicable law could be determined by where the plane took off or landed.
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