After booking on AI, Gaikwad takes train to Delhi (Lead, Supersedes earlier story)

After booking himself on a Pune-Delhi flight, Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad cancelled his ticket and boarded a train to the national capital, official sources said on Monday.

Over two weeks after he was blacklisted and grounded by all airlines, Gaikwad had booked his ticket for the Pune-Delhi flight AI-852 for Monday morning.

However, officials said he cancelled it - for reasons not known - and boarded the Rajdhani Express to New Delhi on Sunday evening from Mumbai.

According to information available with AI at 9.30 a.m., the Osmanabad MP was expected to take the flight and travel in business class.

On March 23, it was the same flight AI-852 which did not offer business class that day, leading to a verbal and physical altercation with the airline staffers.

It culminated in an assault of a senior official, two police complaints lodged against him, his blacklisting and flying ban by all Indian airlines that led to protests from the Shiv Sena.

Last week, after Gaikwad tendered a letter expressing "regrets" over the incident, Air India revoked the flying ban on Saturday, followed by the private airlines.

--IANS

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