To accommodate Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, Air India offloaded 3, including child

New Delhi: At a time when resentment against "VIP culture" in India has flooded social media, it has emerged that an Air India flight was delayed for about an hour and three passengers, including a child, were offloaded, for union minister Kiren Rijiju.

The incident took place on June 24, on a flight from Leh to Delhi. Sources say the aircraft door was shut for take-off but did not for a long time. When Mr Rijiju arrived, the airline allegedly removed three passengers to make place for him and his personal assistant.

Mr Rijuju claimed the flight was not delayed, as it had been advanced due to technical reasons.

"The departure was at 11.40 am...I don't know...somehow there was a rescheduling issue...It was not a delay..it was a communication gap," Mr Rijiju told Press Trust of India from Darjeeling.

Asked whether three passengers were off-loaded to accommodate him, Mr Rijiju said: "I am totally unaware whether anyone was asked to deboard. If it was done, it is completely wrong and unacceptable."

The minister said he was to return to Delhi by helicopter but couldn't due to bad weather.

"Then the Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister (Nirmal Singh) asked me to accompany him in the Air India flight which was supposed to depart at 11.40 AM. But to our utter surprise, when we reached the Leh airport at 10.20 am, we found that the door of the aircraft was closed and it was about to take off. Then the Deputy Chief Minister lodged a strong protest with the Civil Aviation Minister for the unannounced rescheduling of the flight," said Mr Rijiju.

He said that after sometime, he and Mr Singh were allowed to board the plane "and we could fly."

Earlier this week, an Air India flight from Mumbai to New York, with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on board, was delayed by nearly an hour allegedly on account of a member of his entourage. Mr Fadnavis has denied it.