Federal officers stopped a former Michigan State University medical resident at an Atlanta airport gate as he tried to board a flight to Amsterdam.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers detained Arpit Saxena, 39, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on the evening of Sept. 10, acting on a felony arrest warrant for criminal sexual conduct. A CBP spokesperson said in a Friday, Sept. 18, emailed statement to the Detroit Free Press that officers encountered Saxena at the departure gate as he attempted to board, according to the Lansing State Journal.
CBP officers identified Saxena through the National Crime Information Center, a federal database that tracks wanted individuals, the Detroit Free Press reported. The agency routinely compares international passenger manifests against law enforcement databases.
Clayton County, Georgia, sheriff's office records list Saxena as a "fugitive from justice." He was booked into the county jail in Jonesboro at 11:09 p.m. Sept. 10.
No bond was set.
As of Sept. 20, Saxena remained jailed there.
The Ingham County Prosecutor's Office charged Saxena on Sept. 3 with three counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. He is accused of sexually assaulting two adult female patients at an MSU Health Care facility in the 4600 block of S. Hagadorn Road in early April 2025, according to MSU spokesperson Amber McCann.
MSU's Department of Police and Public Safety responded to the first complaint on April 3, 2025, after a patient reported being sexually assaulted by the resident physician who examined her, according to a DPPS press release. Saxena was removed from seeing patients on April 7, 2025, and later dismissed.
DPPS submitted its criminal investigation to the prosecutor's office on Aug. 28, 2025. The prosecutor's office filed charges Sept. 3, 2026, more than a year after receiving the case.
Where was Saxena for 17 months?
It remains unclear where Saxena lived during the 17 months between the start of the investigation and the filing of charges. Court documents filed in 54-B District Court in East Lansing list a mailing address in Centreville, Alabama, according to Scott Hughes, community outreach coordinator for the Ingham County Prosecutor's Office.
"I can tell you that we had communication with him and asked for him to cooperate and … he was found at a[n] airport," MSU Police Chief Mike Yankowski said at a Sept. 11 news conference.
Yankowski said the department had been actively trying to contact and locate Saxena but acknowledged he did not know how long Saxena had been outside Michigan. The extradition process could take weeks, Yankowski said.
Nadia Vizueta, DPPS communications manager, said federal officers called the department after identifying Saxena at the airport. DPPS confirmed the warrant and authorized the hold.
District court records list Michael E. Carter of the Detroit-based Honigman law firm as Saxena's attorney. The Detroit Free Press reported it reached out to Carter but did not receive an immediate response.
MSU's Nassar history
The charges arrive a decade after the Indianapolis Star first reported allegations that MSU sports medicine doctor Larry Nassar sexually abused athletes. Nassar was convicted on criminal sexual assault and child pornography charges and is serving life in prison.
The U.S. Department of Education fined MSU $4.5 million for Title IX violations tied to its handling of the Nassar case and ordered the university to restructure its Title IX office. The scandal led to the resignations of then-President Lou Anna Simon and Provost June Youatt. Former College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean William Strampel was convicted on charges tied to sexual harassment of students and inaction on an earlier Nassar complaint.
DPPS has established a hotline at 844-99-MSUPD (844-996-7873) and an email tipline for anyone who was a patient of Saxena between July 1, 2024, and April 7, 2025, and experienced conduct that made them feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
