New Delhi: Air India Express pilot Captain Virender Sejwal, who allegedly assaulted a passenger at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport on December 19, has been arrested, police said on Tuesday.
Sejwal was initially detained on Monday for questioning in connection with the assault case. After collecting evidence from the airport and security agencies, the pilot was arrested after interrogation.
Police had approached airport authorities last week, collected CCTV footage of the incident and sent Ankit Dewan, the victim, for a medical examination. Reports revealed Dewan had suffered a nasal fracture, bruises and other injuries.
Statements of airport security staff, who were the first to intervene in the altercation, were taken. Dewan’s statement had already been recorded, informed deputy police commissioner (DCP) Vichitra Veer.
Captain Sejwal, who was off duty when the alleged assault took place, was suspended by Air India Express pending investigation.
Sejwal was booked under sections 115 (voluntarily causing hurt), 126 (wrongful restraint), and 351 (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The matter came to light after Dewan posted a photo on social media showing his injured face. Dewan claimed Sejwal assaulted him in front of his seven-year-old daughter, who was left traumatised.
According to Dewan, he and his family were asked to use the security check area that the staff uses because their four-month-old baby was with them. He said that the staff was cutting the queue ahead of him, and on calling them out, Sejwal, who was doing the same, asked him if he was uneducated and could not read the signs clearly saying that entry was only for staff.
Two days after the incident, the pilot’s lawyers said in a statement saying that reports on the issue “misrepresented a personal incident” as a “pilot vs passenger” dispute.
In his complaint, Sejwal accused Dewan of starting the fight by abusing him without any provocation and using abusive, degrading and threatening language. The pilot claimed he also sustained injuries.
Sejwal’s lawyers said in a statement that outrage on social media over was based on “one-sided, incomplete misrepresentation of facts.”
