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Rishabh Mahajan: repeated sexual offending and a contested deportation order

Rishabh Mahajan arrived from India in September 2024 to study business analytics at UCD. About one month later, he began a pattern of sexual offending against women at work, on the street, on campus and inside their homes. Two courts imposed custodial sentences; a deportation order is now being challenged.

Published 31 July 2026 · Remigration Ireland case ledger
~1 monthArrival to first reported offence
2 casesSeparate guilty-plea proceedings
Moderate riskSexual reoffending assessment
Order contestedDeportation position reported

The latest sentencing report calls Mahajan a 31-year-old Indian national and says he came to Ireland in September 2024 for a master's degree at UCD's Smurfit business school. It also says he had no entitlement to remain, that a deportation order had been made and that he was fighting it.

The public reports contain an arithmetic conflict: the newest account says six exposure convictions plus one sexual assault, while the earlier case recorded four offensive-conduct guilty pleas plus a sexual assault and the later case recorded three more offensive-conduct pleas. This file does not force those descriptions into a false total. It records the two sets of pleas separately and describes at least seven convictions across the proceedings.

The first month

At about 6am on 11 October 2024, a youth-hostel worker saw Mahajan looking at her outside. He opened his coat, exposed himself and masturbated. On 23 October, a woman working alone at night in a glass-fronted city building saw him masturbating while staring directly at her. When she told him to leave, he laughed.

He returned to that workplace twice. On the final visit, he wiped his hands across the glass before leaving. CCTV captured all three incidents.

Sexual assault on Halloween

On Halloween night, another woman walking home saw Mahajan masturbating in public. When she began calling Gardaí, he ran up and touched her bottom. She screamed. CCTV recorded the sexual assault, and Gardaí identified and arrested him in early November.

He pleaded guilty in the Circuit Court to four counts of offensive conduct of a sexual nature likely to cause fear, distress or alarm and one count of sexual assault. On 3 June 2026 he received 16 months, with the final 12 months suspended. Reporting says he was assessed as presenting a moderate risk of sexual reoffending and became subject to sex-offender registration.

Three more women

The separate District Court case concerned three further daytime incidents. On 15 December 2024, Mahajan entered a UCD study room, stared at a woman and masturbated. On 26 December, a woman in her bedroom saw him across the street at an apartment viewing, staring through her window while touching himself. She was left traumatised and afraid to be home alone.

On 5 March 2025, a woman walking to her car at UCD saw him leaning against it with his trousers down to his knees, masturbating while looking at her. Campus security found him elsewhere on the campus and he was arrested.

On 30 July 2026, Judge Treasa Kelly imposed a separate four-month sentence after guilty pleas to three counts of offensive sexual conduct. Because Mahajan was already due for release in September, the later term reportedly extended custody by about three months. The court was told he had been removed from UCD.

The enforcement question

This is not a case in which removal was merely demanded by a commentator. The court report says a deportation order exists. It also says Mahajan is challenging it. Until that process is completed and a departure is confirmed, the accurate status is order made, enforcement contested.

His barrister said publicity had travelled to India and that Mahajan feared social rejection there. That is mitigation advanced for the defence, not a legal finding that the deportation order cannot be enforced.

Chronology

Public-cost benchmark

A parliamentary answer gives the 2024 average annual cost of an available staffed prison space as €99,072, or €8,256 per month. Roughly seven reported active months across the two sentences produces a benchmark-equivalent of about €57,792.

This is not a case invoice or proof of his exact release date. It excludes Garda, court, legal-aid, probation, victim-support and deportation-litigation costs, and it uses a system-wide average rather than marginal spending.

Sources

Record checked: 31 July 2026. All victims remain unnamed.