No orders from Uddhav, says Sena MP who beat up 60yrold AI staff

After major airlines refuse to fly him, Ravindra Gaikwad returns home after an overnight train journey

Two days after assaulting a 60-year-old Air India employee in Delhi and then being put on a no-fly list by major airlines in the country, Shiv Sena Member of Parliament (MP) Ravindra Gaikwad, returned home by train on Saturday.

Gaikwad, who started from Delhi on Friday, alighted at Vapi station in Gujarat and left for Pune by road. Gaikwad later went to Solapur and his constituency, Osmanabad.

The 56-year-old MP , who travelled by August Kranti Rajdhani Express from Hazrat Nizamuddin station, was, according to a source, going to appear before a three-member disciplinary committee of the Sena ahead of meeting party chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday.

However, Gaikwad, speaking to HT on the phone, denied that he had been summoned to Matoshree, the residence of party chief Uddhav Thackeray.

Gaikwad also denied appearing before any disciplinary committee.

“I have not received any “aadesh” (orders) from Uddhav ji to meet; if he calls me, I will go. I don’t know anything about this committee,” Gaikwad told HT. According to a close aide of the MP, he travelled to Pune to meet an ailing relative. Later, he went to Solapur and Osmanabad.

On Thursday, Gaikwad thrashed a 60-year-old Air India staffer “25 times” with his footwear and nearly pushed him off the ladder used to deplane. After the incident, Thackeray reportedly expressed his unhappiness over Gaikwad’s unrestrained behaviour and his subsequent coarse statements to TV journalists. According to Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Anil Desai, the party has taken “serious note of the incident” and Uddhav spoke to Gaikwad and also gave him a ‘dressing down’.

Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut defended the MP and said that the party does not endorse the actions, but both sides of the incident need to be investigated. He also added that Uddhav had not summoned Gaikwad for disciplinary action and that he didn’t in fact need to be disciplined.

Gaikwad also told HT that he has already spoken to Thackeray and apprised him of what happened on the Pune-delhi flight on Thursday. He added, “I got down from the train at Vapi station. I will be back in Delhi on Wednesday.”

Gaikwad abused and assaulted a 60-year-old Air India employee with his slippers, venting his anger after he had to fly economy class on a Pune-new Delhi flight on Thursday. Air India and four private airlines banned the MP f from flying as he refused to apologise for the incident that triggered nationwide outrage.