SpiceJet passenger ‘secretly’ clicks ‘objectionable’ photos of air hostess on Delhi-Mumbai flight; DCW issues notice
Swati Maliwal's notice states that the incident allegedly took place on Spicejet flight No 157 flying from Delhi to Mumbai on August 16.
The Delhi Commission for Women has taken suo-moto cognizance of a video being circulated on social media platform Instagram regarding alleged sexual harassment by a passenger onboard a SpieceJet flight and issued notices to the Indira Gandhi International Airport Police and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
“In a flight from Delhi to Mumbai, a passenger secretly took videos and objectionable photos of the flight attendant and other women. A video about this is going viral on Instagram. This is a very serious matter, taking cognizance they are issuing notices to the police and DGCA,” DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal tweeted on Friday sharing copies of the notices.
The notice stated that the incident allegedly took place on Spicejet flight No 157 flying from Delhi to Mumbai on August 16. “It is alleged in the viral video that a passenger Was trying to click obscene pictures of a woman flight attendant and his woman co-passenger. It has been stated that when his mobile phone was checked, objectionable pictures of the women onboard the plane were found in his mobile,” the notice read.
In the DCW notice, Maliwal sought a copy of the FIR registered in the matter and details of the accused arrested by August 23. “If the accused has not been arrested, please inform the reasons for the same, detailed action taken report in the matter and provide the sought information to the Commission Considering the gravity of the matter,” Maliwal wrote.
The incident comes months after two passengers were de-boarded from a Delhi-Hyderabad SpiceJet flight at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in January after one of them allegedly touched a member of the cabin crew in an inappropriate manner and displayed “unruly behaviour” prior to the flight taking off. The man and his co-passenger were then handed over to a security team at the airport, with the Delhi Police subsequently registering a case.
The incident took place days after the DGCA had slapped a fine of ₹30 lakh on Air India for the way it had handled an incident on a flight from New York to New Delhi in November, where a Mumbai-based businessman urinated on a female passenger. The DGCA had said the airline had failed to tackle the incident in the correct manner, also suspending the Pilot in Command’s license for three months.
In May, a passenger travelling in a Kochi to Bhopal via Bengaluru AirAsia flight was arrested after a 21-year-old flight attendant complained she was sexually harassed by him at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).
The incident allegedly took place when passengers were deboarding the AirAsia aircraft number 6E-702 in Bengaluru. The flight attendant was from Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and the flight landed at KIA at 6:06am.
