Sena files privilege motion after Air India cancels MP’s ticket

Sources said that the MP had purchased an open ticket prior to the ban, which his staff had booked for tomorrow morning to travel from Mumbai to Delhi. The ticket “has been cancelled”, an Air India (AI) statement said. 

The Shiv Sena MP, who is at the centre of a raging storm for assaulting an elderly Air India employee last Thursday, was earlier barred from flying by all major domestic airlines in an unprecedented step in Indian aviation history. 

A day after the incident, the national carrier had cancelled a return ticket of the MP while IndiGo too had followed suit, forcing him to take a train to Maharashtra. The MP from Maharashtra’s Osmanabad, however, has continued to brazen it out and remained unapologetic about his conduct. 

An FIR has been registered against him on the basis of the complaint lodged by Air India for repeatedly hitting 62-yearold Duty Manager R Sukumar with sandals on a Pune-Delhi flight after it landed. The MP was angry at not being given a business class seat though he had boarded an all-economy flight.

LS Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Tuesday said she was considering a privilege motion by the Shiv Sena on the ban by all airlines on party member Ravindra Gaikwad. The issue was raised by Sena member Anandrao Adsul when Zero Hour started. Adsul who had raised the issue on Monday too was seen speaking even though his microphone was not working.