Airport scuffle: Indigo submits report to civil aviation ministry, says staffer ‘doing his job’
When our staff Thomas saw Katyal inadvertently moving towards the catering high lift , Thomas started waving from a distance to ask Katyal to move away with the sole intention of preventing any accident. ADITYA GHOSH, president, Indigo
NEW DELHI: A day after a video of two Indigo employees caught in a scuffle with a passenger at the Delhi airport surfaced, the lowcost carrier has submitted a detailed report to the civil aviation ministry, defending its employee and claiming he was ‘doing his work’.
Indigo president Aditya Ghosh, in his seven-page letter, backed his employee Juby Thomas who had a scuffle with a passenger, Rajiv Katiyal.
“We recognised that whatever may have been the provocation, my colleagues should have exer- cised restraint. The ex-employee, Montu Kalra, who was terminated and is claiming to be the ‘whistleblower’, is the one you can hear shouting in the video and instructing the other two colleagues who were junior to him to prevent the customer from boarding the bus and holding him back at the ramp area itself. Kalra was a cargo employee and had no reason to approach the passenger area,” said Ghosh in the letter.
Ghosh explained the sequence of events with screenshots of the video. In his letter, Ghosh said after deboarding the plane, passengers are asked to stay away from equipment for their safety.
“When our staff Thomas saw Katyal inadvertently moving towards the catering high lift (which was attached to the aircraft), Thomas started waving frantically from a distance in order to ask Katyal to move away with the sole intention of preventing any accident,” the letter said.
Ghosh said that due to the noise around, Thomas might have shouted, which Katyal felt was rude.
Ghosh also said that Katyal used “abusive language”. “In the hindsight, Thomas should have probably ignored the remark. However, Thomas turned around and asked Katyal why is he abusing him,” the letter read.
In the video, Katyal could be seen trying to enter the bus while he was stopped by the airlines employees. While the employees were heard complaining that the man should not be abusing, a scuffle broke out between them and he was later seen pinned to the ground by the employees.
The incident reportedly took place on October 15. Delhi police said they were informed about the incident but when they spoke to Katyal and the airlines employees,the matter was settled amicably and none of them pressed charges.
On Tuesday, after the video surfaced, minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha had condemned the incident and said that Katyal should file a police complaint.