Man who lived at Chicago airport for months acquitted of trespassing charge

A man from India who lived for three months at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport due to COVID-19 concerns has been acquitted of a felony trespassing charge, according to NBC News.  

Aditya Singh is due to be back in court on Friday on another escape charge for allegedly violated the terms of his electronic monitoring while out on bond for the trespassing charge, reports NBC.

Cook County Judge Adrienne Davis did not explain her rationale for acquitting Singh, however, following his arrest in January, the Transportation Security Administration determined that Singh had not violated airport regulations, according to NBC. 

“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,” Christine Carrino, an aviation department spokeswoman, said earlier this year, as reported by NBC News.

“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,” she added. 

Singh came to the U.S. about six years ago in order to earn a master’s degree and was living in Orange, Calif., NBC reported. He boarded a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago last year for what was meant to be the first leg of his flight home to India.

However, he was arrested in January when two United Airlines employees noticed he was wearing a badge that belonged to an airport operations manager who had reported the badge as missing, according to NBC News.

Singh explained to police he had stayed at the airport because the coronavirus pandemic left him afraid to fly and that strangers had helped him purchase food, the news outlet reported. 

“I’m actually growing spiritually due to this experience and I know I will come out stronger,” Singh wrote in a text to the Chicago Tribune.