A 41-year-old Indian businessman was sentenced to three years in prison for molesting former Bollywood actress Zaira Wasim on a flight in 2017.

Vikas Sachdev was accused of repeatedly moving his foot up and down her neck and back while she was "half-asleep" in her seat.

He was convicted on Wednesday under child protection laws since Wasim was 17 at the time of the incident.

She debuted in 2016 in Dangal, one of Bollywood's biggest films.

The following year she was awarded the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement. But in 2019 she announced that she was quitting acting because the profession "threatened" her relationship with her religion.

She was molested on a flight from the capital, Delhi, to Mumbai in December 2017.

Wasim documented her experience on Instagram and the post went viral.

In her post, she said that he "kept nudging my shoulder and continued to move his foot up and down my back and neck".

She said she blamed the turbulence at first but was later woken by his foot touching her neck. She shared a video of herself after the flight, in which she was visibly upset. "This is terrible," she said. "No one will help us if we don't decide to help ourselves."

She tried to film Sachdev, but it was too dark to see his face. Police arrested him after he was reportedly identified with help from the airline, Air Vistara.

Wasim had also accused the airline of not doing anything to help her when she raised the issue. But she did not file an official complaint against them.

The airline denied the charge and said they had "zero tolerance for such behaviour".

Source: BBC

BDST: 1720 HRS, JAN 15, 2020

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