'IndiGo staffer had no business shouting at the passenger,' says Aditya Ghosh after manhandling incident at Delhi Airport

A video of a passenger being manhandled by IndiGo staffers has emerged and is going viral on social media. The passenger has been identified as Rajeev Katyal and the incident took place at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport on October 15. The video was captured by an airline employee who was trying to intervene. In the video, Katyal can be seen arguing with some ground officials and telling them to do their job properly instead of ordering the passengers around. The officials then stop him from boarding the shuttle and push him around. When he fights back, he is pinned to the ground by around three officials.

In an email to Business Today, the President of IndiGo's parent InterGlobe Aviation, Aditya Ghosh mentioned that he had called the passenger the day the incident took place. "I personally called and apologised to the customer three weeks ago. Not now. But on the very same night. Not once have we blamed the customer or justified the conduct of the employee. We immediately suspended them and terminated the errant employee," Ghosh said.

He further added, "The ex employee who is claiming to the whistleblower is the one who was screaming at the customer and shouting 'rok le, rok le isse' preventing the customer from boarding the bus. He was 4 years senior to the other two employees. And instead of acting maturely, he is the one who instigated the incident. He is the one who prevented the customer from departing in the bus. You can hear his voice in the first parts of the video. He was a cargo employee. He had no business being there. And had no business shouting at the customer."

Aditya Ghosh has also issued an official statement regarding this incident. In the statement he says, "Treating our customers with respect is core to what we do. Every day we take tens of thousands of happy customers to where they need to get to. It is for this reason that customers choose IndiGo more number of times than any other airline in the country. An incident happened in Delhi airport which is entirely the opposite of this and against what we stand for at IndiGo. The video of this incident came to our attention and we took action. Even while the investigation was going on we immediately suspended the involved employees.  I personally spoke to the customer and apologised to him the very same day."

"Whatever may have been the provocation, our staff was completely out of line and didn't follow laid down procedures. I acknowledge the unpleasant experience our passenger went through, while engaging with our staff. Once again, my personal apologies as this do not reflect our culture. At IndiGo, dignity of our passengers and staff is of utmost importance. Any act that compromises the dignity of either is of a serious concern to us. Under the code of conduct violation, this incident was investigated by the designated committee and stern action was taken against the staff who was the main culprit by immediately terminating his employment. He was the one found instigating and aggravating the situation. He is the exact opposite of what IndiGo's customer service aims to be. Once again my personal and sincere apologies to the affected passenger," he further stated.

Katyal told a TV channel, "I was standing in the shade of a plane when a ground staff started shouting at me in a very rude manner. I asked him why don't you arrange the third bus for which we are waiting. Meanwhile, when the bus came two people said let's teach him a lesson and one of them pulled me out of the bus."

On Tuesday Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha spoke to IndiGo's founder Rahul Bhatia and sought a detailed report of the incident. He also added that once Katyal files a criminal complaint against the employees, they would lose their security clearance for airport passes and will no longer be able to work in the aviation industry. 

The minister also condemned the incident and called it "deplorable and unfortunate" in a series of tweets. In an attempt to inform citizens about how to effectively handle such a situation, Jayant Sinha tweeted:

Passengers and employees should know that the Ministry has multiple channels such as AirSewa and DGCA Sugam to handle such complaints n/n

- Jayant Sinha (@jayantsinha) November 7, 2017

You can watch the video here: