Sena MP on Rajdhani back to Delhi

AIR INDIA SAYS NO AGAIN

EVEN AS his party raised the issue in Parliament, Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad was grounded again on Tuesday after Air India refused to fly him, forcing him to take the Rajdhani Express to Delhi from Mumbai.

Gaikwad had booked two tickets, from Mumbai to Delhi and Hyderabad to Delhi, but Air India cancelled them both, citing “passenger safety”.

Gaikwad had to travel AC-II tier on the Rajdhani, instead of first class that MPS travel.

Gaikwad’s name did not feature in the VIP list of passengers called ‘Higher Official Requisition Chart’, indicating it was a lastminute booking. As per rule, an MP booking a waitlisted ticket in the normal course gets reservation when the chart is made, which is what happened with Gaikwad. Even then, the reservation system automatically booked Gaikwad on an upper berth in A5 coach, after which he requested an ‘emergency quota’ accommodation and was given lower berth in A3 coach’s seats 13, 14 and 15, Railways sources said.

Leaving Mumbai Central at 5 pm,thetrainisscheduledtoreach Delhi the following morning.

Sources said Gaikwad, Lok Sabha MP from Osmanabad (Maharashtra), had two open ticketswithai,issuedbeforethescrap aboard the flight from Pune to Delhi. He had slapped and, by his own claim, hit 60-year-old duty manager Sukumar Raman with his sandal when the official tried to persuade him to disembark. Gaikwad had held up the aircraft for more than 40 minutes.

Sources said the MP tried to book the flights through AI call centre. Confirming the development, an Air India spokesperson said, “Our stand remains the same. We have cancelled both his tickets .... We came to know who the passenger was and cancelled the ticket again.”

The spokesperson added, “Aftertherecentincident,ouremployees are agitated. Our airport employees have said that they won’tattendtohimandduetosecurity reasons, we have cancelled his tickets.”

Aiofficialssaidtheyarechecking the database to ascertain how many tickets Gaikwad may have booked.“wecannotallowthemp to take the flight as we feel a security threat to our crew in allowing himtofly,”thespokespersonsaid.

The Sena has now sought to move a notice for breach of Gaikwad’s privilege. The decision ofthe“syndicateofairlines”todebaramemberfromthe“airtravel Privilege” granted by the House was “unacceptable”, Sena parliamentary party leader Anandrao Adsul said in a letter to Lok Sabha Secretary General Anoop Mishra on Monday. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan acknowledged in the House on Tuesday that she was considering the matter.

On Tuesday, the Delhi Police Crime Branch recorded statements of one more AI staffer — the 16th witness to the alleged ruckus caused by Gaikwad.

Ravindra Gaikwad