Chennai: A 36-year-old Indian-origin man who was too scared to fly due to the coronavirus pandemic and lived undetected for nearly three months in a secure area of Chicago’s international airport has been arrested, US authorities said.

Aditya Singh lives in a suburb of Los Angeles, California, was arrested on Saturday for living in a secure area at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport since 19 October, reports said.

Singh has been charged with felony criminal trespass to a restricted area of an airport and misdemeanour theft, the report said.

Prosecutors told a court that Singh arrived at O’Hare on a flight from Los Angeles on 19 October and allegedly has lived in the airport’s security zone ever since, without detection.

He was arrested after two United Airlines staff asked him to produce his identification. He showed them a badge, but it reportedly belonged to an operations manager who reported it missing in October.

He reportedly found the staff badge in the airport and was ‘scared to go home due to Covid’, Assistant State Attorney Kathleen Hagerty said.

The airline employees called 911. Police took Singh into custody on Saturday morning in Terminal 2 near Gate F12.

Aditya Singh managed to live on handouts from other passengers, Hagerty told Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz.

The judge expressed surprise at the circumstances of the case, the report said.

Singh lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Orange with roommates and does not have a criminal background, according to Assistant Public Defender Courtney Smallwood. She said Singh has a master’s degree in hospitality and is unemployed.

Smallwood acknowledged the circumstances were unusual but noted the allegations were non-violent. It was unclear what brought Singh to Chicago, the report said.