After Air India cancels two tickets booked by Shiv Sena MP on Delhi-bound flights, Ravindra Gaikwad takes train to national capital

Mumbai: After Air India cancelled two tickets booked by Ravindra Gaikwad on Delhi-bound flights, Shiv Sena MP on Tuesday evening boarded the Rajdhani Express for the national capital.

He was booked this afternoon on a second AC sleeper compartment. The train left Mumbai Central at 5 pm and will reach Delhi around 8.30 am on Wednesday.

As per an official, it was not clear whether the MP was travelling alone or with some aides and security personnel, IANS reported.

Earlier today, Air India cancelled two tickets booked by Gaikwad on a seat on flight AI 806 from Mumbai to Delhi for tomorrow.

This was followed by another attempt to book a seat on AI 551 from Hyderabad to Delhi, again for tomorrow, which was cancelled, too.

Both these bookings were made on open tickets which were issued to Gaikwad, who has been declared persona non grata by domestic airlines, before the ban was imposed on him, a AI source said, as per PTI.

The airline is now ascertaining how many open tickets and frequent flyer tickets have been issued to the MP from Osmanabad in Maharashtra so that those could be cancelled, the source said.

On March 23, Gaikwad had abused and repeatedly assaulted with a slipper and even attempted to throw out 62-year-old Duty Manager R Sukumar in on a Pune-Delhi flight after it landed in Delhi.

The MP was angry at not being given a business class seat though he had boarded an all-economy flight.

Air India lodged two FIRs against him with Delhi Police. Subsequently, all Indian airlines blacklisted him from air travel following his unruly behaviour.

Unrepentent, Gaikwad brazened it out and was seen on national TV for two days boasting about the way he assaulted the Air India employee.

A day after the incident, the national carrier had cancelled the return ticket of the MP and private airliner IndiGo followed suit, forcing him to take a train to Maharashtra

The issue also figured in Parliament, with Shiv Sena MPs creating an uproar, contending it violated the Constitution and the law and demanding lifting the ban.

However, Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapati Raju criticised the conduct of Gaikwad, saying, "I never in my wildest dreams thought that an MP will get caught in such an incident".

He added that violence of any kind on an aircraft can be "disastrous".

(With Agency inputs)