Indigo staff manhandle passenger, airline issues apology

Three days after ace badminton player PV Sindhu tweeted about rude behaviour by an IndiGo employee, a video of a ground staff of the airline at the Delhi airport manhandling and dragging a passenger has surfaced, forcing the airline to issue an apology.

The incident happened on October 15. The video shows the passengers Rajiv Katiyal who has just deplaned from a Chennai-Delhi and is about to board a shuttle to the airport terminal. He is accused of abusing an IndiGo employee, which he vehemently and irritably denies.

IndiGo ground staff stop him from boarding the bus. An altercation ensues and within seconds, the man is shown being dragged across the tarmac and being pinned to the ground by IndiGo staff.


An IndiGo spokesman confirmed the incident and said the employee has been suspended.

"Even while the investigation was going on we immediately suspended the involved employees," said the airline's president Aditya Ghosh, adding "stern action" was taken against him.

"I personally spoke to the customer and apologised to him the very same day. Whatever may have been the provocation, our staff were completely out of line and didn’t follow laid down procedures," he said.

On Saturday, Rio Olympic gold medalist shuttler Sindhu in a series of tweets complained against a staffer who allegedly made a rude remark about shifting her racquets from the cabin to cargo as they were too long.