Kanhaiya Kumar assaulted by 'BJP supporter' inside Jet plane

MUMBAI: Jawaharlal Nehru University student activist Kanhaiya Kumar was on Sunday assaulted inside a Mumbai-Pune Jet Airways flight, by a co-passenger, who Kanhaiyya called 'a BJP supporter'.

"Yet again, this time inside the aircraft, a man tried to strangulate me," Kumar posted from his account on social networking website Twitter. Kanhaiyya himself identified the attacker as Manas Deka, a Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) employee and a 'strong BJP supporter'.

The student leader was on his way to Pune to speak at an event in the city. A person in the know said an altercation happened between Kumar and the man identified as Deka. He added that Kumar was accompanied by six other people. All eight if them--the assaulter, Kumar and his friends--were deplaned.

In this tweet, Kumar said the airline staff refused to take against the man who assaulted him.

"Basically @jetairways sees no difference between someone who assaults nd d person who is assaulted. They will deplane you, if you complain," Kumar wrote in his tweet, tagging Jet on his official Twitter handle.

"Some guests on board Jet Airways fight 9W 618 from Mumbai to Pune have been off loaded at Mumbai airport in the interest of operational safety," a spokesman from the airline said in a texted official statement.

A spokeswoman at TCS said the company "will take appropriate action as per company policy once the facts are ascertained." She didn't elaborate.

"Whatever happened, happened inside the Jet Airways aircraft. We have nothing more to add. Kumar must have filed a complaint against Deka to the airport police," said a spokesman for the Central Industrial Security Force.

A call to the airport police station didn't immediately yield further details.