NEW DELHI, April 20 (Xinhua) -- India's national carrier Air India has questioned the Delhi police for its failure to take action against a lawmaker of the country's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) ally Shiv Sena who assaulted one of its employees last month.
Ravindra Gaikwad, the parliamentarian of the western state of Maharashtra's regional Hindu fundamentalist Shiv Sena party, had in March assaulted the 60-year-old staff member of Air India for being denied a business-class seat in a Delhi-bound flight.
Sources said that though the Air India and other private airlines recently lifted the air travel ban imposed on the lawmaker in the wake of the assault, the Air India has now written a letter to Delhi Police, asking why no action was taken against Gaikwad yet despite a complaint being launched.
The incident, which drew widespread nation-wide condemnation, took place earlier last month when Gaikwad was coming to Delhi from Maharashtra's Pune city on an Air India flight that apparently did not have a business class.
After thrashing the Air India employee, the Shiv Sena parliamentarian even bragged about in when local TV channels sought his reaction to the incident. "He was arrogant. I hit him 25 times with my sandal," he told the media.
Following the incident, all Indian airlines imposed a travel ban on the lawmaker though it was lifted earlier this month, following an intervention by the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry.
Gaikwad has, however, claimed that he had only shoved the airline employee when he insulted parliamentarians. "I apologise for my behavior but not to the Air India official who abused and manhandled me," Gaikwad had said in Parliament earlier this month.
Even the BJP had strongly condemned the incident. "Elected representatives need to respect people who are doing their job, irrespective of whether the Air India man was rude," said Shaina NC, the BJP spokesperson.
