Three individuals face flying ban in connection with protests against Kerala CM onboard IndiGo plane

PTI, Jul 18, 2022, 12:09 PM IST

IndiGo has imposed flying ban for specific periods on Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front’s convenor E P Jayarajan and two Youth Congress workers for their involvement in a scuffle onboard the aircraft that was also carrying state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan last month, according to sources.

On June 13, two Youth Congress workers shouted slogans against the chief minister inside the IndiGo aircraft from Kannur, after it landed at Thiruvananthapuram airport. Jayarajan, who was also onboard, allegedly pushed aside the two protesters.

The sources said that an internal committee set up by the airline has decided to impose a flying ban of at least two weeks on the three individuals.

The two Youth Congress workers will face a flying ban of two weeks, the sources said.

The period of flying ban on Jayarajan could not be immediately ascertained while reports said that the ban is for three weeks.

There was no comment from IndiGo.

Jayarajan told the media on Monday that he has not received any notice regarding the flying ban so far. One of the Youth Congress workers, Farzeen Majid, told a Malayalam television channel that he has received a notice, informing that he has been banned from flying for two weeks.

Last month, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that his ministry would take action soon on the incident onboard IndiGo’s Kannur-Thiruvananthapuram flight.

Airlines have the option to ban people from flying for a specific period under the DGCA norms.

When an airline receives a complaint of unruly/disruptive behaviour by a passenger, then the incident shall be referred by the airline concerned to an Internal Committee.

The committee consists of a Retired District & Sessions Judge as Chairman, and a representative from a different scheduled airline as member. Besides, there will be a representative from a passengers association or consumer association or retired officer of Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum as member, as per the norms.

The committee decides the period for such passengers to be barred from flying.

The Youth Congress workers were protesting against the chief minister over allegations against him in a gold smuggling case.

Following the incident last month, the two protestors and another Youth Congress member were booked for attempt to murder, according to Kerala police.

The FIR by the police in Thiruvananthapuram said that due to political enmity, the three accused, namely Farzeen Majid, Naveen Kumar and Suneeth Kumar, conspired to kill the chief minister and boarded the flight from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram.

A case was registered against three Youth Congress workers under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 120B (conspiracy), 307 (attempt to murder) and 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), the police had said.