A man who spent three months living at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport due to concerns over COVID-19 has been acquitted of felony charges, the Chicago Tribunereports.
Earlier this year, 37-year-old Aditya Singh made headlines after he was arrested for allegedly living inside of the airport for months without being detected. He was eventually charged with felony criminal trespassing and misdemeanor theft, and claimed he was too scared to board his flight home to India due to the pandemic. As NBC News reports via the Associated Press, Cook County Judge Adrienne Davis Acquitted Singh on the trespassing charge this week.
While Singh’s attorney did not have to mount a defense for the trespassing charge, he’s still facing an escape charge after he allegedly violated the conditions of electronic monitoring after he was released on bond earlier this year. Singh is expected to address that seperate charge in court on Friday.
Singh initially arrived in the United States over five years ago to study for his master’s degree, but when it came time for him to leave the county on Oct. 19, 2020, he decided to remain in the airport. It wasn’t until Jan. 16 that he was arrested when two United Airlines employees asked him to see some identification. Singh had stolen an airport ID badge that he stumbled across sometime in late October, and admitted to the theft. An investigation from the TSA found that he did not violate airport regulations during his time staying there.
According to Singh, he was afraid to fly because of the pandemic, and survived off the kindness of strangers, who paid for his food. He passed the time talking to strangers about his religious beliefs.
“Mr. Singh did not breach or improperly enter secured areas—he arrived there like tens of thousands of arriving passengers do every day, by stepping off a plane,” aviation department spokesperson Christine Carrino told the Tribune earlier this year. “While we won’t speculate on Mr. Singh’s motivations, he decided to remain in the secure area and made every effort to blend in as a passenger and airline employee until his arrest.”
