New Delhi: After the Delhi airport incident where a passenger was allegedly thrashed by a ground staff of IndiGo Airlines, civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju told IndiGo promoter Rahul Bhatia that “this kind of barbarous” behaviour by airline staffers should not be allowed. The airline, however, told the minister the passenger had attacked a staffer.
Mr Raju also said “security procedures on the airside” (where the violence occurred) “were not followed”. With the ministry monitoring the situation, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security is issuing a notice to IndiGo.
Mr Raju has also ordered aviation regulator DGCA submit a report on the incident after due inquiry. The incident had occurred on October 15 but had hit the headlines only on Tuesday following the surfacing of a video-clip.
On Wednesday, IndiGo President and wholetime Director Aditya Ghosh wrote to the minister “acknowledging" that IndiGo was “at fault” and “apologising for this regrettable incident”. However, the IndiGo President at the same time accused the passenger Rajiv Katyal in turn of attacking IndiGo employee Juby Thomas while claiming that airline employees had not attacked the passenger. But Mr Ghosh claimed in his letter to the ministry that “whatever may have been the provocation, whether verbal or physical abuse, we could have tried to display more restraint”.
The Central government is coming under increasing pressure to act following incidents of high-handedness of airline employees. It may be recalled that airline crew have been kept out of the No-fly list rules put out by the Government a few weeks ago.
