Air India air hostess who was eyewitness to the incident said and that Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad was very courteous to the crew and there was no sign of him being violent onboard
Ravindra Gaikwad
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Under-fire Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad has found support from one of the Air India staff, an air hostess of the national airlines who was an eye witness to the incident.
The air hostess said that the Shiv Sena MP was only trying to pull up the duty manager for his misdemeanour and said that he had no intentions of throwing him down the ladder. Contrary to what it was reported, she said and that Gaikwad was very courteous to the crew and there was no sign of him being violent onboard or no expectation that he would become violent later on.
"The only thing is that he was not willing to get off the plane even after being pursued by background and commercial staff. He wanted to speak to higher authority at the managerial level so that he can take up some issues with them which he was facing primarily, due to the boarding pass he had been issued, which was of J-class and he was given economy seat because the aircraft on that route is always economy. So, this discrepancy led to an argument with the ground staff and the MP concerned," the air hostess said in a report carried by Deccan Chronicle.
The air hostess further informed that on Gaikwad's demand to meet senior official, the duty manager, Sukumar onboard came to meet him."He (duty manager) was pretty much honest to his job but somewhere something went wrong in his communication and probably, the MP took also took it in wrong way. The conversation led to an argument which ultimately led to physical entanglement between the two men. Whereupon the MP took out his slipper and was about to hit him and tried to take law in his hand by taking him towards the ladder," she added.
The air hostess further said that she intervened because she wasn't scared of Gaikwad.
"That is the time when I barged in because I knew he wouldn't hit me because some time back he had called me sister and he was showing sympathy towards all women employees," she said. I was not scared of Mr. Gaikwad because he was particularly nice to me. My colleagues told me that I had held his hand and stopped him from hitting Sukumar further," she told media agency.
The air hostess said that the Shiv Sena MP had no intentions of throwing the duty manager down the ladder. "I don't think he was about to throw him (duty manager) off. He was just trying to pull that person up for his misdemeanour and put pressure so that senior officials come and hear out all his concerns," she added.
The Sena MP has admitted to repeatedly beating an Air India official with his slipper in New Delhi. Air India and all private airlines then announced that they cannot fly him any more. Air India and six private airlines banned the 56-year-old MP from flying as he refused to apologise for the incident.
Sukumar, who was assaulted by Gaikwad, said that he is not scared of the minister and believes that the elected representatives need to behave in a decent manner.
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