Swati Deshpande (THE TIMES OF INDIA; December 12, 2017)

Mumbai: A special court on Monday remanded senior corporate executive Vikas Sachdeva (39), accused of sexually harassing a 17-year-old actor aboard an aircraft, in two days’ police custody, following his arrest on Sunday night.

The actor was with her mother in business class on a late-night Delhi-Mumbai Vistara flight on Saturday. Sachdeva, a frequent flyer, seated in 2F, right behind the actor (1F), was accused of placing his foot on her armrest and rubbing her back and neck.

Sachdeva stood quietly in court on Monday and was taken out barefoot by cops. Outside the Dindoshi court, his wife Divya, fighting tears, and other family members stressed that he was “innocent; a family man”. Sachdeva, a highly placed official in an entertainment company, has been charged with ‘sexual assault’ under the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, punishable with 3-5 years’ imprisonment, and ‘sexual harassment’ under the IPC’s section 354.

While the case has once again sparked the ‘good touch, bad touch’ debate, a co-passenger told the police on Monday that he did not see Sachdeva “misbehaving”.

Meanwhile, the actor and her mother took a Vistara flight back home via Delhi on Monday morning.