Indian American Millionaire Techie Charged With Sexual Abuse, Assault

By Little India Desk | May 23, 2018

An Indian American multi-millionaire tech executive was charged with sexual abuse, assault and strangulation in a New York court for allegedly attacking a 38-year-old woman in his hotel room in June 2016, New York Post reported.

The woman, identified only as a call girl, had found Sanjay Tripathi, a 48-year-old father of two children, on SeekingArrangements, a website that pairs “sugar daddies” with young women.

During the trial on May 21, the woman said, “I am never going to look the same again,” according to the report. “As he’s punching me, he keeps repeating he’s going to kill me,” she added.

On the day of the alleged incident, Tripathy and the young woman were on a date, but he is reported to have turned violent on reaching the room at W Hotel. He allegedly pushed her down on the bed, and pulled down her tights to insert his fingers inside her. He is also accused of choking her and threatening anal rape.

The woman tried to escape by saying that she has to use the bathroom, but she was unsuccessful in running out of the room as the latch of the door was in place. “And I screamed ‘help me,’ ‘help me’ as loud as I can,” she told the jurors.

However, Tripathy allegedly covered her mouth and dragged her back to the bed. The woman even knocked the phone off the receiver and tried to call the concierge, but Tripathy put the phone back, punched her, and coerced her into performing oral sex on him, and if she refused, he said he would “f–k [her] in the a–,” she said.

He also threatened to kill her if she went to police, the court heard. The woman made her escape by telling Tripathy that she had a six-year-old daughter at home, waiting for her. The surveillance footage produced in court showed her coming out of the hotel and making her way to a New York Police Department van that was parked across the street.

“Tripathy allegedly told the woman she was ‘going to die’,” and as “the frightened woman apparently attempted to depart the room after the date went from fun to frightening, Tripathy allegedly became more violent,” Assistant District Attorney Kristen Baraiola was quoted to have said in the court.

“When the woman rejected his advances, the executive allegedly beat her, resulting in her split lip, broken tooth, two black eyes and a bloody nose. She saw blood literally fly out of her face after being punched,” Baraiola added.

During a hearing in 2016, Baraiola told Justice Michael Obus that Tripathy, who is based in Morrisville, NC, has a net worth of $10 million and an annual income of $1 million, New York Post reported earlier.

Tripathy’s former attorney, Jeffrey Greco, had claimed earlier that the encounter was all in good fun and was a consensual BDSM session, according to his client. “When the issue of money came up midway through their consensual sex session, Tripathy declined to pay stating ‘she was demanding an exorbitant fee’,” Greco said.

A judge in the case refuted claims that the encounter was consensual, saying that the photos, shown first to the panel on May 18, “indicate something entirely unconsensual, to say the least,” depicting the incident more serious than just rough sex play.

Tripathy’s new defense attorney, Frank Rothman, said: “He’s a married guy… when he travels, when he’s in New York, he likes to indulge.”

If convicted, Tripathy faces up to 25 years in jail.