MP Ravindra Gaikwad lies low, with family for Gudi Padwa

PUNE: Osmanabad's Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who assaulted an Air India staffer in Delhi on Thursday, refused to reveal his whereabouts when contacted by TOI over the phone on Sunday. "I can't tell you where I am right now. I am with my family members and I will celebrate Gudi Padwa with them before returning to Parliament on Wednesday morning," he said.

Gaikwad admitted that he is lying low on his party's instructions. "I have been asked to stay quiet and not escalate matters so that there is no increase in tension in connection with the entire (Air India) episode. I am following my party's directions. If you want, I will call you up again and make you speak to my family so that you are sure that I am with them. You want to talk to my family? I will give you a call soon," he said before disconnecting the call.

Gaikwad also said he was exploring legal options against all the airlines which have put him on their no-fly list. "They (airlines) cannot ban me from flying. I will act legally against the ban soon. I had confirmed return tickets of IndiGo and Air India but they were cancelled he said.


The MP was believed to be in Pune with his family and relatives on Sunday after Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray cancelled a meeting with him in Mumbai a day earlier. After failing to meet Thackeray, Gaikwad was reported to have left from Mumbai for his hometown Umarga in Osmanabad district by road and had taken the Pune route.

However, Sena leaders in Osmanabad as well as the police there said they had no information about Gaikwad having returned to his hometown. "I do not know where he is right now. Some people were saying that he could be in Umarga for some private function. But I cannot confirm it," said Osmanabad district Sena president Anil Khochre.

When contacted, the Umarga police said they only track the movements of ministers and VVIPs. "We cannot comment about the whereabouts of an MP," they said.

Meanwhile, local Sena leaders said no official call has been given for an Osmanabad bandh on Monday. "Messages are doing the rounds in Osmanabad about the bandh, but it is not official communication," Khochre said.

The Sena has not supported Gaikwad's act but senior party leaders have expressed reservations over the airlines' action against him.

Gaikwad's assault on a 60-year-old Air India ground staffer in Delhi led to a public furore across the nation. The MP had a business class ticket but the flight which he boarded from Pune was an all-economy one. Yet, on reaching Delhi, Gaikwad refused to deboard and got into a verbal duel with the airline staffers before assaulting one of them. The defiant MP maintained that he assaulted the staffer as the latter misbehaved with him.

While an FIR has been registered against him with the Delhi police, Air India and the Federation of Indian Airlines which includes private airlines Indigo, SpiceJet and GoAir reacted by putting the MP on a no-fly list. As a result, Gaikwad was forced to take a train from Delhi to Mumbai.

Meanwhile, sources in the Pune police as well as the Sena's local unit said they have no information about Gaikwad's whereabouts. Joint commissioner of police Sunil Ramanand said, "We have no specific instructions as yet to track his (Gaikwad's) movement. He is an MP and a free citizen; besides, he is not a minister. As such, we are not tracking him."

(With inputs from Prasad Joshi in Aurangabad)