A Delta pilot who was pulled off a plane by local authorities and federal agents at SFO Saturday night is implicated in the sexual abuse of a young girl in the East Bay over multiple years, and the girl's mother was also allegedly involved.
When we first learned some details about the arrest of 34-year-old Rustom Bhagwagar, a Delta Airlines employee who was co-piloting a flight from Minneapolis to SFO on Saturday night, authorities said that Bhagwagar was arrested on suspicion of crimes related to "child sexual abuse material."
We don't yet know if there is photographic or video material that was referred to, but the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office later clarified that the arrest came after an investigation initiated in April, "after receiving a report of sex crimes against a child."
Bay Area News Group now clarifies that authorities in Contra Costa County had contacted a girl whom they learned had possibly been the victim of abuse, and the girl reportedly told investigators that she had been "abused by the pilot several times a week, sometimes multiple times a day, from the ages of six to 10," and that her mother had been a witness to much of this abuse.
The girl further told investigators, per the news group, that she had to keep the abuse secret or else she would be taken away.
It seems as though the mother has already been arrested and/or taken in for questioning by Contra Costa County sheriff's detectives, and she agreed to participate in a phone call that was recorded in which Bhagwagar appears to admit to the abuse, and he suggests that he already knows he's in trouble.
Bhagwagar said in the call that he would be in the Bay Area in late July, and could meet with the woman and the daughter to discuss how to keep the abuse secret.
As the news group reports, the mother reportedly joked with Bhagwagar that he might want to throw her off a bridge or otherwise kill her, and he allegedly replied, "I mean at this point, you’re not the problem really."
Investigators then learned that Bhagwagar was working on a Delta flight that landed at SFO on July 26, and they stormed the cockpit of the plane as soon as it arrived, with the help of federal agents and the SFPD.
Bhagwagar is reportedly a resident of Florida, but public records show him having ties to San Ramon, Castro Valley, and Texas.
Delta Airlines issued a statement Monday saying it was "appalled by reports of the charges related to the arrest," and adding that Bhagwagar had been suspended pending the investigation.
Bhagwagar is being held in jail in Martinez in lieu of $5 million bail.
Previously: Delta Airlines Pilot Pulled Off Plane at SFO, Arrested on Child Porn Charges
Photo by Miguel Angel Sanz
