A 41-year-old Indian-origin man in the US has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for sexually abusing a minor boy seated next to him on an airplane in 2019, according to the Justice Department.
JjDistrict Judge Nancy E. Brasel sentenced Neeraj Chopra, who is from Minneapolis, for engaging in sexual contact on an airplane during a flight from Boston to Minneapolis, according to a statement by the US Department of Justice on Friday.
Chopra was convicted of the crime in July last year following a three-day trial.
According to court documents, Chopra knowingly engaged in abusive sexual contact with a 16-year-old victim who was seated next to him aboard a Jet Blue flight from Boston to Minneapolis in April 2019.
During the flight, Chopra retrieved a blanket from his backpack and draped it over his lap, with a portion of the blanket also covering the victim’s right leg.
Chopra put his hand under the blanket and began inappropriately touching the victim and ignored the victim’s multiple requests to stop, it said.