By Srijit Das
An old video of a scuffle between a passenger and employees of IndiGo airlines is circulating on social media misleadingly claiming that the incident took place recently.
BOOM found that the incident dates back to 2017 when IndiGo sacked one of its employees Montu Kalra after the incident.
The initial few seconds of the video shows a passenger involved in a verbal altercation with ground staff of IndiGo before boarding the bus at the airport tarmac. The IndiGo employees later restrain the passenger, stop him from getting on to the bus and pin him down to the ground after a fist fight breaks out between them.
The clip is being shared with the caption, "INDIGO Flight attendants misbehaving with old man who wanted to board the bus to catch the flight. They pushed him down and pressed his neck. The world should know the rude behavior of Indigo flight staff. Would they have done this to a Muslim passenger?"
Click here to view the post.
Another Twitter user shared the video with the caption, "INDIGO flight attendants misbehaving with a passenger who wants get into bus fir boarding. Shameless for INDIGO".
Click here to view the post.
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What Happened In 2017?
BOOM covered the incident of manhandling the IndiGo passenger which happened on October 15, 2017, inside the Delhi airport.
We also accessed IndiGo's letter dated November 8, 2017, to the Civil Aviation Ministry about the incident where the airline's then president Aditya Ghosh apologised about the incident.
Ghosh, in the letter, wrote, "I personally called and apologized to Mr Katyal (the customer) 3 weeks ago. Not now, but on the very same night. In fact, I remember telling Mr. Katyal that I had seen the video and assured him that we will investigate this matter thoroughly."
Ghosh also acknowledged in the letter that the airlines was at fault in the entire incident and mentioned that the company has taken strict action regarding the scuffle.
In the letter, he further stated, "Even during the pendency of the investigation, we recognized that whatever may have been the provocation, my colleagues should have exercised restraint. Even while the investigation was being conducted, we immediately suspended the involved employees."
The official letter from the airlines accused their employee Montu Kalra of instigating the matter and provoking the passenger Rajeev Katyal by recording a video of the incident.
The letter states, "Montu Kalra was a cargo employee. He had no reason to approach the passenger area. He had no reason to prevent the customer from boarding the bus. He had no reason to scream instructions at his other colleagues. In fact, even if he chose to get involved, since he was 4 years senior to them in the Company, he should have acted maturely and apologized to the customer and let him proceed towards the arrival hall."
A report by The Times of India published on November 9, 2017 also carried a comment by the passenger Rajeev Katyal.
Katyal said that he did not agree with the IndiGo report submitted to the government which says that the airlines' ground staffer Juby Thomas made attempts to prevent him from getting harmed during the scuffle. The Times of India quoted Katyal as saying, "I am a frequent flyer and know where I can go and not go after alighting from an aircraft. I was just standing quietly in the shade and waiting for a bus to take us to the terminal when one ground staffer (Thomas) spoke very rudely to me. When I asked him to do his job and quickly call the third bus, he got agitated."
Katyal also admitted that IndiGo's then president Aditya Ghosh made an apology call to him saying that he had suspended people for the skirmish. However, the passenger said that he was shocked to see that the airline only suspended Montu Kalra but not the others involved, added the report.
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