Swedish man gets bail after getting arrested for molesting IndiGo crew on Bangkok-Mumbai flight

Mumbai:The Swedish national who allegedly molested an airline staff onboard a Bangkok-Mumbai flight on Thursday, was granted bail. The victim had alleged that the accused tried to hold her hand while swiping his ATM card, while the lawyer of the accused claimed that the Swedish national suffers from health issues and his body shivers, which could’ve led to the incident.

The accused, identified as Klas Erik Harald Jonas Westberg, was travelling in IndiGo flight 6E-1052 and started misbehaving with the cabin crew when the meals were being served. The 63-year-old passenger was allegedly drunk and demanded the crew to serve him seafood, on which the staff informed him that there was no sea food onboard, this initiated the incident.

Accused molested her and returned to his seat when the victim protested

The victim alleged that she served him a chicken meal instead and asked for his ATM card to make the payment through the POS (Point of sale) machine. “While swiping the card, the passenger held my hand. I pulled it back and asked him to enter the card PIN,” alleged the victim. 

The victim also added that Westberg then got up and molested her and returned to his seat when she protested. After the flight landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Westberg was handed over to the Sahar police who registered a case under IPC section 354 (molestation) against the accused. According to the First Information Report (FIR), Westberg also assaulted another passenger who confronted him during the incident.

Victim's lawyer claimed that he suffers from health issues

Westberg was however released on bail, as the subsection under which he was booked was a bailable offense and his lawyer also claimed that his client suffers from health issues and his body shivers due to which he cannot hold anything without help. While trying to hold the payment card machine he must’ve touched the cabin crew unintentionally, his lawyer added.