A lovesick Indian man enraged by evidence his girlfriend was being procured by the top aide to Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle during one of her trips to the Philippines, was sentenced to one year in prison for blackmail.Rajdatta Patkar had pleaded guilty to attempting to extort $35,000 from Lingle's former campaign manager and chief of staff, Bob Awana, in exchange for withholding information that he said could ruin Awana professionally and personally.Awana, who cooperated with the FBI in an undercover operation to arrest Patkar, resigned from his post as chief of staff without giving a reason shortly after Patkar’s indictment became public in June.Lingle, a Republican, has refused to talk about Awana’s abrupt departure, and attorneys were prohibited by the court from revealing details of the case.But after sentencing on Monday, Patkar’s public defender alleged for the first time that Awana arranged for the girlfriend and another woman to go on dates with Awana and a businessman from Hawaii during an official state trip by Lingle to the Philippines.
