- A Boston doctor was arrested this week and accused of masturbating on a plane in front of a teen.
- Prosecutors said he masturbated while sitting next to a 14-year-old girl on a flight in May 2022.
A Boston doctor has been accused of exposing himself and masturbating in front of a teenager on a flight from Honolulu to Boston in May 2022.
The Department of Justice said Dr. Sudipta Mohanty was arrested on Thursday and charged with one count of lewd, indecent, and obscene acts. His arrest follows an increase in disturbing passenger incidents this year.
Prosecutors alleged that Mohanty masturbated while seated next to a 14-year-old girl and later exposed himself on a flight last year.
An attorney for Mohanty did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A criminal complaint said the teenager seated next to Mohanty and his partner noticed that Mohanty's "leg was bouncing up and down" after he had covered himself with his blanket.
The teenager went to use the restroom, and Mohanty used the restroom when she returned, the complaint said.
Prosecutors alleged in the complaint that he later started masturbating again without a blanket when they were both seated until the teenager witnessed him ejaculate on himself. Mohanty then returned to the bathroom a second time, the complaint said.
"When Mohanty returned to his seat Minor A did not know what to do," prosecutors said in the complaint. "Everyone around her was asleep."
The teenager eventually moved to the row behind her as there were no seats next to her grandmother, the complaint read.
"Once off the plane and in the airport in Boston, Minor A told her grandmother that the man sitting next to her had done something 'inappropriate,'" prosecutors said in the complaint.
"What Dr. Mohanty is accused of doing in front of a fourteen-year-old girl is reprehensible," Christopher DiMenna, the Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division, said in a press release. "Today's arrest should make it crystal clear that the FBI takes crimes aboard aircraft seriously, everything from sexual misconduct as alleged in this case, to assault, interfering with the flight crew, and theft."
Investigators said in the complaint that they interviewed the teenager and the family members she met days after the incident. Mohanty, who was approached by federal agents in May 2023, denied the ordeal.
"I have no recollection of that," Mohanty told prosecutors, the complaint said.