A man visiting from India has been arrested and accused of fondling half-a-dozen teenage girls at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon in Orlando, Florida, officials say.
After being arrested on the charges, 27-year-old Aman Bhatia avoided reporters by staying inside the lobby of the Orange County Jail for more than seven hours before finally making his getaway in an Uber driver’s car.
Victims accused Bhatia of waiting until there was a wave generated in the wave pool and then swimming up beside the girls and grabbing their buttocks and breasts when the wave rolled through.
Some of the victims were as young as 12, reports reveal.
Bhatia, listed as residing in Louisiana but a citizen of India, insisted that it was all a misunderstanding and that he only crashed into the girls because he had broken his glasses and could not see well in the wave pool.
But witnesses tell a different story, with one insisting that the man positioned himself purposefully to be able to grope teenaged girls before the waves hit.
The witness noted that at one point, after a wave came, she saw Bhatia grope a girl who looked to be around 16. The witness said the girl came up out of the water, yelling, “Who grabbed my breasts?” police reported.
At least six girls and young women complained that Bhatia groped them in the pool.
Disney reported that the suspect has been banned from their facilities but did not note if the man was staying at one of their hotels.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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