A man from Bengaluru who created a scare on an easyJet flight from England to Scotland on July 27 by shouting claims of having a bomb and slogans including “death to America, death to Trump” was diagnosed as recently as March 2025 as having a thought disorder following a mental health diagnosis.
Investigations by the police in Karnataka since receiving word from the UK about the man have revealed that Abhay Devadas Nayak, 41, a former freelance journalist who also dabbled in his family’s hospitality business, was diagnosed as having a mental disorder after a Perceptual Thinking Index test conducted at a well-known psychiatric hospital in Bengaluru.
Nayak left India on June 5 for a tour of the UK on a tourist visa as per investigations based on the details of his passport, which was issued in Bengaluru, police sources said. The police have not found any suspicious antecedents to correlate Nayak to his sudden outburst on the July 27 easyJet flight from Luton, England, to Glasgow Scotland.
“He was diagnosed with a mental illness and was under treatment is what we have learned,” a police source said following a preliminary probe in Bengaluru.
Following psychiatric tests, Nayak was found to be having problems relating to reality and was diagnosed as having schizophrenia. He was advised medication and care in March by a psychiatrist at a reputed psychiatric facility in Bengaluru, sources said.
Nayak, who was arrested when the easyJet flight landed at Glasgow, was presented in the Paisley Sheriff court on July 28 and again on August 5. In the first court appearance, Nayak did not plead guilty or not guilty.
Reports from the UK said Nayak, who lived in Luton, is being charged under the UK’s Air Navigation Order including a charge of acting in a reckless or negligent manner to endanger an aircraft, or people in an aircraft.
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“We were called to a report of a man causing a disturbance on a flight arriving into Glasgow around 8.20 am on Sunday, 27 July, 2025,” the police in Scotland said in a statement last week.
The family of Nayak is expected to present the details of his mental health condition in the UK courts to seek his discharge. His father did not respond to requests for a comment and employees at a serviced apartment run by the family said he had travelled abroad.
According to an online profile for Nayak, he received certifications in online search engine optimisation courses in May this year, and was previously employed for over two years at his family’s hospitality facility and worked previously as a journalist for a publication on the microfinance business.
Nayak reportedly has a master’s degree in applied psychology and a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He is married and started a business venture called Antrix Ventures LLP in Bengaluru in 2010 for trade in space industry equipment.
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The family of Nayak hails from the Honnavar region of the Uttara Kannada district and his two siblings are doctors working abroad, police sources said.
Social media videos of the July 27 incident on the easyJet aircraft show a person identified as Nayak standing up and raising slogans before he is wrestled down by passengers and members of the cabin crew. The videos show the man shouting the slogans.
After he is wrestled to the ground by passengers, Nayak is heard telling co-passengers that he raised the slogans since US president Trump was in Scotland that day and that he wanted to register a protest. “I want to send a message to Trump,” he is heard saying. “There are families on this plane,” a passenger is heard telling the man.
Nayak also tells the co-passengers that he is a passenger on seat number 11F, that he is a refugee without a passport in the UK, that he has a card for residency in Wales, and that he has no bomb as claimed earlier.
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The passengers are seen finding an ATM card with the name Abhay from his wallet and a driving licence issued in Karnataka.