The UF graduate student charged with groping dozens of women on campus while pretending to remove bugs from their bodies was sentenced to 180 days in jail earlier this month.
Robin Garg, 23, also received three years of probation and promised to return to India when he is released. He was ordered to repay the state about $3,500 in investigation costs and about $1,600 in court costs.
Garg, who has been in jail since his arrest on April 14, apologized before being sentenced.
"I want to apologize for University of Florida and all the victims," he said in his soft-spoken, emotional statement.
"I'm not a bad person," he said. "I did something very bad, and I don't know why."
After being arrested earlier this year, Garg admitted to police that he groped 33 women on campus. Police later identified 31 women who said they'd been groped by Garg and five others who had been approached by him.
According to police, in each case Garg told the women he wanted to help remove a bug from their bodies. Garg told police he groped them because he "liked to scare women."
Not all of the women filed complaints.
Under an agreement with the state, Garg pleaded no contest to five cases of misdemeanor battery. The state withheld adjudication on one of those cases and agreed not to file formal charges in the other 20 cases pending against him.
Garg was given credit for 116 days he had spent in jail since his arrest. In addition, his attorney, Geoffrey Mason, said the Alachua County jail would likely shave 30 days off his sentence for good behavior. If that is the case, Garg could be released in the first week of September.
Garg faced a maximum sentence of one year in prison for each charge against him.
A psychological evaluation determined Garg is not a threat to society, Mason said.
Though Garg, who is in the country on a student visa, said he will head back to India to finish school and be with his family after his release, the court ordered he is to have no contact with UF, Santa Fe College or any of his victims.
After his release, Garg will be handed over to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which could decide to deport him regardless of his intentions to leave the country on his own.
