I’ll never be able to sleep on a plane again (which is great since whenever I fly, it’s cross-country).
Sick, sick, SICK:
BOSTON — An Arizona executive was convicted on Tuesday of sexually assaulting a sleeping woman seated next to him on a flight from Dallas to Boston.
Deepak Jahagirdar, 55, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was convicted by a federal jury after a six-day trial and five hours of deliberations of sexually abusing and having abusive sexual contact with the 22-year-old woman.
Of course, he tried to claim it was consensual. Sleep always means, YES, doesn’t it???
The woman, traveling alone and returning home from a vacation in Texas in March 2002, told authorities that she fell asleep early on the Delta Air Lines flight and awoke to find that Jahagirdar had covered her with a blanket, unbuttoned her pants and had his hand inside her.
The woman left her seat and alerted the flight crew. Jahagirdar, a marketing manager for a health care company, was arrested by Massachusetts State Police when the flight landed at Logan International Airport in Boston.
Jahagirdar’s sentencing is set for June 24. He faces up to 20 years (for sexual abuse), three years (for abusive sexual contact) and a half-million dollar fine. He also faces the prospect of me cursing him violently whenever I have to stay awake during the long flight home to California.:+:
UPDATE:
Though you easily might have breezed by it in your horror, the article quoted above states that the incident occurred in 2002, so that should resolve the confusion about the woman’s age.
Some more information for you “Law and Order: SVU”-freaks. She confronted him:
“What the (expletive) are you doing?” the medical secretary told jurors she said as she grabbed the man’s forearm. “He looked at me as if he had no idea what I was taking about.”…The woman, whose name is being withheld, said she tried to leave her row after the assault, but Jahagirdar would not put up his tray table. She pushed by and reported the incident to a flight attendant.
Also, the pervy HBS alum was even slimier than I thought:
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. The crew in turn alerted four United States Secret Service Agents who were on board the flight returning to Boston from an assignment in Texas.
Upon the flight’s arrival in Boston, the plane was met by uniformed Massachusetts State Police. JAHAGIRDAR initially attempted to avoid law enforcement officers at Logan Airport, but was intercepted on the jetway. Subsequent testing of skin cells taken from JAHAGIRDAR’s hands revealed that a significant quantity of the victim’s DNA was present on his hands.
Like Abhi said…no more Nyquil on flights. 🙁
this is disgusting .. but at the same time, wouldn’t you wake up if someone unbuttoned your pants?
Sonia, I was thinking the same thing. Instead of being scared of falling alseep on an airplane I think the real danger is in taking Nyquil before falling alseep on the airplane.
Well I would, but I’m a light sleeper. A lot of people I know wouldn’t – plus some people take sleeping pills or “calm down” pills on airplanes.
-D
way more people than you probably realize. and when they take them, they are OUT. also, why assume what she was wearing was that tight? a lot of people travel in gym clothes. i’m wondering if we should take “unbuttoned” literally…
Wow, up to 20 years? That’s a lot more than people get for murder here. Still, eeew, sicko!
I’ve travelled with a lot of people who don’t dress for comfort. My favorites are the ladies (and the one tranny) who do their makeup from the beginning to the end of the flight. For some voyeuristic reason, I am fixated by the turbulent application process.
Time to buy a kevlar chastity belt.
gotcha … i’m one of those who falls asleep before the plane even takes off so I forgot about the others
how timely that this article be posted now. i just took a cross country flight to nyc, and took nyquil to help me konk out. but to my horror of all horrors, the two people next to me (who i assumed didn’t know each other) got it on (yes really) all night long. part of the time i faked slumber just cuz i didn’t know what else to do. guess there was no question about that being consensual.
Define “it”.
Also, this report is incredible in the sense that its hard to believe. Lack of consent seems somewhat implausible…how could anyone expect the person not to wake up? Unzipping is one thing but the rest of it…?? Either the guy has serious mental problems or he was unfairly convicted. But then, he was convicted pretty quickly so the evidence must have been convincing. oof.
(1) From the comments, apparently a lot of people understand quite readily why she didn’t wake up.
(2) Uh, a 6 day trial is NOT fast AT ALL. But, looking at the length of trial doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about the merits of the case.
After 6 days of argument and testimony, maybe he WASN’T unfairly convicted.
-D
Uh, I thought you said “the length of trial doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about the merits of the case”? Which is it?
I said he was convicted quickly, not that the trial proceeded quickly. Juries convict. 5 hours IS a relatively quick conviction.
-VL
Which is it? You imply that either he was mentally unstable or unfairly convicted – my point was that, apparently, plenty of people had plenty to say. If his mental health was at issue (and we don’t know from the article) – pretty sure that was brought out.
I don’t think I was inconsistent – my point was if the trial had lasted 1 hour, one would feel more comfortable saying he may have been unfairly convicted.
So, some reports say he’s 53, others 51, and for the victim, 21, 23, 25… But none say whether the guy has a family, which I’m sure he does. (Not that it matters… except to them)
Somewhat weird string of posts about brown-fetish, homosexuality and rape.
why cares if he has a family? even you said it doesn’t matter, except to them. i’m wondering if you raised the…non-point because the family is indian?
frankly, i’m more concerned about the victim vs the perp. as this comment thread amply demonstrates, people are going to treat her with skepticism, though it’s quite possible that she’s a deep sleeper: which is not a character flaw as far as i know.
and as for the consensual thing, come on. even if it was amitabh (i can’t think of a “hotter” old indian man), what 22-year old wants some of that? he sounds like a creepy uncle. i’m thinking deepa is right and evidence proved it.
well, i guess if you’re looking for a pattern…i didn’t see one until you pointed it out. then again, i don’t find homosexuality WEIRD.
The not-so-friendly skies: Feds: Airplane sexual assaults not uncommon Boston Herald ^ | March 26, 2005 | J. M. Lawrence
Posted on 03/26/2005 4:40:21 AM PST by billorites
Sexual assault on airplanes is more common than most people know and is usually committed against sleeping women, according to research by federal prosecutors in Boston.
“The most common type was the touching of women sleeping on flights by men seated next to them,” said court papers filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. McNeil, who reviewed FBI and airline statistics as part of a case against an Arizona man facing trial Monday.
Delta Airlines logged 30 incidents in the skies in one year, according to papers in the government’s case against Deepak Jahagirdar, a health-care executive charged with digitally raping a sleeping 22-year-old Boston woman during a midday flight from Dallas to Boston on March 31, 2002.
Jahagirdar, a 1982 Harvard business school graduate who lives in Scottsdale, allegedly placed a blanket over the woman to conceal the assault. State police took DNA evidence from his hand.
Jahagirdar’s attorney, James W. Lawson, is battling to keep the government from telling jurors about the frequency of sex assaults in the sky, calling the information “every traveling woman’s nightmare” and likely to derail a fair trial.
Federal prosecutors said that out of all crimes on airplanes investigated by the FBI in 2003, 12.5 percent involved allegations of sexual assaults…
If this wasn’t serious I would be snickering at digital rape.
Anyways I wonder what really can be done about this besides women having to remain awake throughout a flight?
They can separate the men from the women 🙂
After seeing that stat, am I the only one suddenly wondering how many men were fondled in that 12.5%?
Why care if he has a family… Because in my eyes that doubles the crime.
As for a pattern… a “weird string” is not the same as a “weird post.”
Beginning with the “Office” then “Nikhil” and now this, today’s posts have gotten progressively darker in terms of sexuality.
sd, I think you’re trying to provoke with your statements, first:
And then:
Yes, sd, because homosexuality is on the same continuum as brown fetish and rape. Homosexuality isn’t “dark”, either. Unless you’ve got somethin’ against it.
No, I’m not the one trying to provoke anything, simply noting that the thread of discussion from the Office-post involved a somewhat “light” conversation regarding the sexual “exotic” which was then followed by a strong insight on the unabashedly twisted reality of gender&sexuality politics in India (via the Nikhil-post) and then followed by what is ostensibly a disturbing defense of Deepak Jahagirdar’s actions in this post. All in one day, almost back-to-back and by three different bloggers.
But, if you still think I’m looking for a fight or would like to talk down to me, okay.
Why even post this? SM should be posting thigs relevant to the South Asian diaspora community, not the isolated actions of random brown people! The despicable act of Deepak Jahagirdar has nothing to do with the fact that he’s South Asian! We wouldn’t be reading this if the bastard’s name was Johnathan Jones…
Now by posting this, is Anna trying to point out a trend of sexual abuse among South Asian males? If so, then that’s a different story… if not, then wtf?
sd: ah, so i’m an idiot. my apologies. seeing homosexuality and rape and weird in the same sentence got me hoppin a bit. intent is often perceived the wrong way in short communications on email or blogs. it was just two months ago that the national president of the american medical association made a stupid comment about comparing a medical school’s banning of an LGBT group on campus to Brigham and Young Univ’s punishment of football players who had raped a woman.
my apologies again…
My apologies also, I was being vague and so I deserved the sideslap, if only to get me to restate. Apologies all around and on me… (By the way, I saw that remark by your president and noted that he qualified it with “…I was speaking as AMA president and not a Mormon..”)(?)
So, to a certain degree, BanglaWarrior is perhaps saying what my inarticulate tongue could not. Then again, it makes sense why this was posted as it does relate to the diaspora… Because at least one person has mentioned a “creepy uncle” and since its awkward to arbitrarily bring up the guy we all know exists, this was perhaps a good way to open the subject (or at least disturb, cause debate and take a casual survey on how we diasporic South Asians would respond to hypothetical Uncle’s actions).
BanglaWarrior, Please don’t be offended by my asking because I don’t mean to sound confrontational but why, “should [SM] be posting things relevant to the South Asian diaspora community, [and] not the isolated actions of random brown people?” As far as I know we don’t have a Mission Statement. Nowhere have we stated a purpose or our intentions for blogging in general or this site in specific. We could in fact be a covert CIA psyops operation f*cking with your minds from the basement of a North Dakota missle silo. My point? You can’t try and save the world with every blog entry. I’ve tried. Diverse thoughts and topics like this one interest people. Inlcuding me. However, if visitors attracted by this entry stay and browse some other entries as well they might learn something that you see as being more relevant to the South Asian Diaspora.
“Diverse thoughts and topics like this one interest people. Inlcuding me.”
Abhi, if by “diverse thoughts and topics” you mean “weird things that involve random brown people”, then point well made. Sorry if I sounded rude, it’s just that i’m used to SM putting up meaningful posts so I didn’t really take well to this one (it reminded me of a post a while back about a random South Asian man being beaten to death by a Latino teenager for reasons that had nothing to do with his race).
You’re right, SM has the right to post whatever the hell it wants, but as a fan of the Mutiny, I have the right to criticize posts, don’t I? All I’m saying is that this post is kind of random… there’s nothing particularly South Asian about it. Hell it might as well have been about cattle herding in Zimbabwe.
P.S…. hope I don’t sound like an asshole, I’m just speaking my mind. No offense to Abhi, Anna or SM.
Bangla Warrior,
The South Asian community is still small enough in the US that notable incidents that happen to an individual play upon the mass.
p.s. S.Bose was the man.
no, there’s nothing south asian about it at ALL. she didn’t post about a pervert from ANOTHER community, she posted about a pervert from ours. it doesn’t take much for people to form opinions about others, something like this could do the trick.
also, it kinda undermines the whole model-minority thing, doesn’t it? not that SM should ever discuss THAT.
i think you are kind of being a jerk about it. you don’t necessarily represent the views of a majority of SM readers. 26 comments on this post tells us that people care or want to read/think about it.
as a woman, this story affected me, because it makes me think that i need to change my behavior wrt flying on planes. maybe that sounds like “cattle herding” in zimbabwe to YOU, but it will directy result in me doing and viewing things differently.
oh, and comparing a terrible assault on a woman to cattle herding…? no, you’re not mean at all.
Oh, come on, BanglaWarrior, you know your ears perk up just a bit more when a desi is involved in ANY incident. How are we going to make good community uncles and aunties some day?
Lessons learned:
Sometimes people of color forget that they are third rate citizens in this first rate country. They don’t have the ‘white privilege’. May be people see all these sitcoms where white people can do all kinds of things even with perfect strangers and mistakenly believe that it applies to all. Of course, many indians are racists and they think they are ‘honorary whites’ and I hope incidents like this receive wide publicity among indians so that they know their place in the society.
EOFIA,
“you don’t necessarily represent the views of a majority of SM readers.”
Appearantly not… but speaking my mind makes me a jerk? Yes, I tend to disagree with vurdlife and Maitri in that I’m not amused every time a South Asian does something that attracts ANY TYPE of attention. Us South Asians (believe it or not!) are human beings, and by being human beings we come from all parts of the human spectrum, perverts included. That’s why I didn’t find this post very relevant… the South Asian community ISN’T devoid of perverts!?! Who knew?!?
And you’re accusing me of comparing the gravity of a despicable act to cattle herding? Now that’s just ignorant… I was comparing the RELEVANCY of this post to cattle herding, and yes, there’s a difference. I agree, as a woman this post is more relevant for you than it is for me, but my point is that this applies to women in general, not just South Asian women so it’s out of place in SM. That’s just how I feel.
believe it or not, SM has readers who are women and NOT south asian. i stand by my post. 🙂 if one woman (regardless of her hue) is a bit more conscious of her surroundings on a flight b/c of this post, oy, what a mitzvah.
Obviously not, there are too many of us to keep track of. 🙂
Seriously, I am never aware of my skin color until it’s pointed out, but:
1) we have identified ourselves as desis and are a minority in our own country (not just in terms of color but also perspective), 2) this is a heads-up from Anna that this horrible stuff happens and now we know, and 3) it’s a reminder that no one is above this type of behavior, not even us
The South Asian community isn’t devoid of gorgeous genius billionaire philanthropist models either, BanglaWarrior, but I don’t hear you complain during the umpteen posts about them.
Was he tried in Texas or Boston? Was it a Trial by jury? What is the composition of a Federal Jury? What are the statistics of Sexual harrassment/rape cases of non-whites against white women? Obviously I am not claiming he is innocent, but these issues are important things to consider.
“The South Asian community isn’t devoid of gorgeous genius billionaire philanthropist models either, BanglaWarrior, but I don’t hear you complain during the umpteen posts about them.”
No… because they’re South Asians who actually did something notable enough to have an impact on our community. I wouldn’t be coming to Sepia mutiny if I wasn’t into such things. But jeez, some pervert puts his hand down some unconscious girl’s pants… as despicable as I find the act, I don’t find it particularly noteworthy considering that thousands of drunk frat boys do the same thing every year.
And Anna, I applaud you! Making sure that women of all hues know the danger of sitting in an airplane next to a man of brown hue (the only reason you posted this is becasue the guy’s name was Deepak… don’t deny it) is a noble cause. 🙂
BTW Sun… we don’t know that the victim was white since her identity has been kept secret.
wow, your sarcasm and misguided interpretation of my words and intent are just what i wanted to go with my afternoon coffee. who needs scones?
i never said it was dangerous to sit next to a south asian man, as if other men were safer. in fact, my post NEVER said anything like what you are insinuating…i.e. that ONLY brown men acted like disgusting perverts.
did this brown man’s actions open my eyes to the possibility of something terrible? yes. does that mean that it’s a crime exclusive to people like him? let me attempt to be as transparent as possible– NO.
yes, the reason why i posted this particular issue HERE is b/c this is a space for all things BROWN. if it were some white-on-white incident, it would be laudable to post similar, but not quite relevant to SM. how is this difficult to grasp?
SM is not some bullshit PR machine for south asia, south asians or anything else. we are not on the payroll of any embassy, special interest or anyone else.
we call it like we see it. if we can post about something amazing, we can post about the flip side, too.
Anna,
I was never suggesting that you were being a racist. I was just pointing out that you only posted this because the guy was Indian. You’re not denying this, in fact you think that having any sort of South Asian involvement in a story makes it worth posting here, and here’s where I disagree with you. However, what you want to post about is completely up to you… I’m in no position to tell you or SM what to do, I was just pointing out a difference in opinion.
If my comments somehow made you’re day any worst, I sincerely apoligize… my intention was to stir up some interesting conversation, not to make people mad. I’m delighted that intelligent, level-headed, South Asians like you and other SM staff are out there blogging, and I would never want you guys to become a “bullshit PR machine for South Asia”.
P.S. Sorry if I ruined your coffee. 🙁
Banglawarrior – very gracious reply to ANNA 🙂
I hope you don’t mind if I add this: you seem to be surprised that ANNA ‘only’ pointed this out because they guy is Indian. But that is true about everything on this site! SM only ever posts things about people because they are Indian or somehow related to India? So what’s the difference here? That it is a negative story instead of a positive one? I’m sorry, I’m not following your logic.
I’m off to a concert soon, so this will probably be the last comment I make. To clarify MD, SM usually points out notable things (whether good or bad) that affect South Asians. Deepak Jahagirdar did a bad thing, but it really wasn’t anything uncommon. It would be like posting something like “Gopal Patel Opens a Shoe Store”… although it’s a commendable thing done by a South Asian, it’s really nothing newsworthy.
Now if Deepak Jahagirdar was an infamous “serial airplane rapist”, then I would consider it postworthy.
Before people decide to join the battle against this Bangla Warrior, I’d just like to say that this is just my opinion… if you disagree I have nothing against you.
Agree with Bangla above. The ‘model minority’ thing is the reason why every wrongdoing by a random desi (not a celebrity) gets reported. It’s common to see things like this reported in Times of India, rediff.com.
The victim was a young “attractive” woman while Jahagirdar, whom she did not know, is 5-foot-4 and weighs 130 pounds, McNeil said.
he was sleeping after returning from duty at President Bush’s Texas ranch.
Kahani Mein Twist Hai
Keep it coming SM
Here’s the story Amit refers to:
You’re right. Sick.
–|PW|–
And if whacko Jacko is on-board they’ll also have to separate the men from the boys!!
You babbling fools are all just a bunch of ignorant bitches. Does it make sense that this guy would assault a 22 year old woman on an airplane with his son sitting 2 rows behind him? Would she not wake up while the buttons are being unbuttoned? There is obviously too many unknowns here for you assholes to accuse him of the crime with certainty. It’s quite possible that this was consensual. This man is very intelligent, I’m sure that he would realize that he would get caught on an aircraft in midflight, so the only thing one can assume is that it was consensual and that the woman afterwards wanted to sue him in civil court for monetary gain.
Wasn’t the wooman of Indian origin too????
bl00t:
not that i know of– did you find out additional information? please send us a tip if you did.