Sena MP Gaikwad yet to be questioned in AI assault case

More than nine months after Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad was booked for allegedly assaulting an Air India employee, the lawmaker is yet to be questioned in the case, the police said.

Gaikwad, the Lok Sabha member from Osmanabad in Maharashtra, had hit 60-year-old duty manager R Sukumar '25 times' with a slipper when the official asked him to disembark after the plane landed at the IGI airport in New Delhi from Pune.

The MP was booked on charges of attempting to commit culpable homicide and using criminal force with intent to dishonor a person and the case was handed over to the Delhi Police's Crime Branch.

However, the probe team is yet to 'conclude the probe', said an official.

After a case was registered, a Crime Branch team visited the airport to ascertain how the argument broke out between the MP and the AI manager.

15 AI staffers were questioned, including Sukumar.

"The MP has not been questioned in the case. Both the parties have reached a compromise. We might file a closure report after fulfilling legal formalities," said an official privy to the probe.

The incident had triggered massive outrage with the Air India and other private airlines even banning the MP from flying.

The ban was later revoked after the MP wrote a letter to Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju expressing "regret" over the unfortunate incident. -- PTI