US deports Indian pilot for watching child pornography
US deports Indian pilot for watching child pornography.
(Web Desk) – An Indian pilot was handcuffed in front of passengers and deplaned by US law enforcement authorities over charges of downloading child pornography soon after his flight from New Delhi landed in San Francisco, reported The Times of India.
The Mumbai-base pilot is in his fifties. He is employed as a first officer with an Indian carrier and frequently operates to the United States. Under current regulations, air carriers operating America-bound flights must transmit to the US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection the passenger manifest and crew details no later than 15 minutes after the departure of the flight.
“FBI agents must have waited for him to re-enter the US. He was arrested, his passport seized, his US visa cancelled. He was then put back on a flight to Delhi and deported from the US,” a source said, adding that the said pilot would not be able to visit the US again.
“It was later learnt that he had been under scanner of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the past two months for accessing and downloading child pornography. His internet usage in hotels during layovers in the US was monitored to gather evidence. The FBI has apparently sent a sealed dossier with the evidence to Indian authorities,” another source told.
A spokesperson for the airline said the pilot was deported over visa issues. But at least three independent sources from the airline confirmed that the visa issue in question was related to child pornography charges.
American federal law defined child pornography as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor. The United States Code prohibits “any persons outside of the United States to knowingly produce, receive, transport, ship, or distribute child pornography with internet to import or transmit visual depiction into the United States.”
