A Mumbai court on Wednesday granted bail to a man accused of molesting a child actor on board a Delhi-Mumbai Air Vistara flight, ANI reported. The court granted bail to Vikas Sachdeva on a surety of Rs 25,000.
The Mumbai Police arrested Sachdeva, a 39-year-old senior executive with an entertainment company, on December 10. He was charged under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, and was produced before the magistrate court in Andheri. Sachdeva was then remanded in police custody till December 13.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said that Sachdeva would be put on a national no-fly list if convicted.
The child actor had alleged via a live video on Instagram that Sachdeva misbehaved with her. She also shared a photo that reportedly showed him with his foot on her armrest. “I ignored it the first time and blamed the turbulence for it,” she wrote on Instagram. “Until I woke up to this pleasant sight of his beautiful foot rubbing my back and neck. Guess he could not sit like a civilised human being and placed his foot on my arm rest while he is fully ‘phelaoed’ on his seat.”
But Sachdeva’s wife claimed the actor made up the claims just for publicity. “He was exhausted and just wanted to sleep,” she said, adding that he was returning from an uncle’s funeral. “He put his feet up to rest and slept through the flight.”
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